America may be less qualified to reward its leaders and impress its national guests than almost any country in the world. This is just a little incoherent moan of pain and anguish in text. Like a lot of things I do it sort of comes from waking up and discovering that one is still not dead. Therefore, I might as well mention some of the pain on my mind…
America is a tough place to govern or to aspire to govern effectively. There are many reasons for that no the least of which is the question of what the leadership has been like so far.
The White House is more or less a shack:
1.There are 0.17 square miles or a bit over 47 million square feet indoors and out in the Vatican City, under the kind of authority exercised by the Pope which the President aspires to but never has in the White House.When the President deals with the Roman Catholic Church this is relevant.
2. The Forbidden City in Beijing, China is surrounded by a wall about 30 feet (10 meters) high, and a moat almost 20 feet (6 meters) deep. The walls encompass an area almost 8 million square feet, or 168 acres–about the size of 140 football fields. The complex houses 9,999 rooms; nine is considered a particularly propitious number in Chinese
3.The Grand Kremlin Palace of Moscow, Russia is another case in point: along the South wall of the Kremlin, overlooking the Moscow River, you will find the Grand Kremlin Palace. The new imperial residence, commissioned by Czar Nicholas I in 1838. It was the largest structure in the Kremlin, some 500,000 square feet, that cost 11 million rubles to build. It was designed to link the older Terem Palace and Palace of Facets, with its new and glorious reception halls, a ceremonial red staircase, and private Imperial Apartments.
4.According to the official website, the Palace of Versailles not far from Paris, France has 51,200 square meters of floor space. Each 100 square meters is a little more than 10,000 square feet. So the palace is somewhere between 520,00 square feet and 550,000 square feet. In addition there are the gardens and grounds .While the President is Head of State and operates out of the Élysée Palace and entertains guests in the nearby Marigny in Paris he uses Versailles for State gatherings and dinners and occasions often enough. I know these two palaces are bigger than the White House and some consider them the world’s most expensive real estate.
5. The Buckingham Palace in London, England is part of a set of assets that includes Windsor Castle, royal reservation of space in the Palace of Westminster and a rather nice place called Clarence House. However, Buckingham Palace alone is 828,818 square feet.
6.The White House has 55,000 sq. ft. of floor space. It is run by twelve departments and its tenant does not know it as well as most relevant comparisons. It is also a major office center and is much more of a dump on the world circuit for heads of state than anything else.
What about palaces outside the first and best order?
1. Former American Dominion the Philippines has the Malacañang Palace in a large complex of assets which are much more dominant than the White House is in its realm.
2. Before being destroyed by an Earthquake and now razed the Presidential Palace in Haiti was 210,000 square feet.
3. Like France Mexican President have the Los Pinos residence near to the Chapultepec Castle and has both available for state ceremonies I am not sure about the size.
4. Brazil’s Palaces are too numerous to be understood by the average foreigner.
How about the way we handle those who live in the White House in most basic terms?
1. There have been over 20 known attempts to kill sitting and former Presidents as well as Presidents-elect. Four attempts have resulted in sitting Presidents being killed: Abraham Lincoln (the 16th President), James A. Garfield (the 20th President), William McKinley (the 25th President) and John F. Kennedy (the 35th President). That is a casualty rate near 9%. This presumes nobody else who died was secretly murdered. Remember that we are discussing failing to keep someone alive for a few years, not for life. It is a staggeringly bad and humiliating record.
2. Two other Presidents were injured in attempted assassinations: former President Theodore Roosevelt, and then sitting President Ronald Reagan.
We must understand that America is not at all the country its citizen think it is. We have individuals with a lot of liquid wealth but in many ways we are barely a country and it seen that we are barely a country by almost everyone.
For an alternative American future see: https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/major-themes-of-this-blog/new-model-constitution-of-the-united-states-of-america/
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