The U.S. Constitution has emoluments clauses because the founders of the United States knew that government officials, elected and un-elected, could be bought. At the very beginning of a new country the risks, as the founders saw them, were foreign states and monarchs who had the means to provide these gifts and payments and thus establish quid pro quo. The truth is, any quid pro quo with any government official is a risk to the country, and as we are now living that danger is greater now from within. If the United States is to have a self government future there must be an Emoluments Amendment added to the constitution. #

When I first learned about it I bought an eBook at Bookshop.org, which required me to install their app on my Boox Note Air 3C. Descriptions of their eBook service say that "local bookstores" are the providers of these books, but that makes me wonder exactly how? I am skeptical that a small local book store as the means to provide eBooks, most likely they are still being provided by chains, though they may be smaller than Barnes and Nobel and Amazon.#

Ever since the fall of the USSR the United States has been a country in search of an enemy. For a while it found one in the middle east but now it seems to be everyone other than ourselves, particularly China. Today's cold war is not an escalation of nuclear arms, although I wouldn't be surprised if that is also happening, but rather an escalation of economic warfare. During the cold war of my youth U.S. citizens were always at risk of being collateral damage, but in the new cold war U.S. citizens are collateral damage.#

What is the word for when a person that is not elected to office and thus not a representative of the people takes over the U.S. government?#

I am expecting the stock market to tank today and a lot of people are going to lose money. #