@Random832 said:
False. See the United States of America, which both is one and contains fifty sovereign states, or, at least it used to
The problem here is the (incorrect, but tempting) idea that "country" is a term which means "sovereign state", and that not being a sovereign state disqualifies an entity from being called a "country". And it'd be more true for "state", if anything. The UK is not a country.
The Supremacy Clause is the common name given to Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, which reads:“ This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
So, basically: "You get what powers we say you can get, and nothing more." Doesn't sound as if the individual states were very sovereign to me. I know they kept using the word, but that was mainly to make them feel warm and fuzzy, and to convince them to give up their newly aquired independence to form a new central powerful government.
I know that there are several definitions of the word country, and you saw me use one above to mean "geographical region", but when the original person in this thread said "Scotland is not a country!" it's because there are many ignorant Americans who think Scotland is a country in the exact same way that Ireland is a country. Hence the need for a correction. I once overheard some coworkers debate the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom for about 15 minutes. They eventually agreed that Ireland (sic) was part of the United Kingdom, but not Great Britain. Quite entertaining.
So first we would need to agree on our definition of country. If it turns out that we are not discussing it in terms of "sovereign nation", then I would like to take this opportunity to tell you more about my home country: Broncos Nation!