We all use money every day. We earn U.S. dollars for our labor, deposit our money in banks, pay our bills, use credit cards, and spend cash to purchase items we want. Most of us walk around with cash in our pockets, but we don’t know very much about how the system works. What is money, and who decides how much our money is worth?
Have you ever wondered what happens when a federal law says one thing and a state law says another? The answer to the question lies in Article 6, Paragraph 2, of the United States Constitution, which is commonly known as the “Supremacy Clause.” Under the Supremacy Clause, federal laws, which apply to the entire country, are supreme over state laws, which apply only to particular states (like Arizona).
Fake news is everywhere. We are all used to standing in the grocery check-out line and seeing the sensationalist newspapers on the rack next to us. The papers always have wild headlines like “Alien Baby Discovered Alive in Seattle,” or “Angelina Jolie weighs 60 pounds and is dying of starvation.” The grocery store tabloids have spent the past 5 years trying to kill off Cher and Angelina Jolie, and they have discovered “credible” photos of Bigfoot at least a dozen times. Everyone knows those stories are either fake or misleading. Yet, the same people who scoff at the grocery store tabloids are often willing to believe everything they read on the internet.
Did you know that American voters do not directly elect the President of the United States?
The people that voters in every American state actually vote for are called “electors” – and it is these electors (who promise in advance to support a particular party’s nominee for President) who formally choose who serves as President.
