America was sold on a Tuesday.

Not all at once, of course. Great nations don't collapse in a day. They erode-slowly at first, then suddenly. Like a riverbank giving way beneath your feet.

Some saw it coming. The economists who tracked the selling of public lands at pennies on the dollar. The civil servants who watched experienced colleagues replaced by algorithms and gig workers. The intelligence officers who noted the strange coincidences in trade deals benefiting the President's allies.