Wiretap: Next stop, Congress doesn’t pay the country’s bills

Worried about the government shutdown? Of course you are. Get you mind off that problem and start worrying about the default. As the Economist explains, it would be way, way worse. Also, Tom Clancy, RIP, and the post-9-11 world.

The Economist explains why the debt ceiling matters.

E.J. Dionne on why this shutdown is different from all the other shutdowns. Via the Washington Post.

The Pueblo Chieftain: Fort Carson commissary, where military retirees get local-tax-free groceries, is shut down, one of the 246 commissaries across the country that serve 12 million people and that are all now shuttered.

Ted Cruz gets hammered by his Republican Senate pals. He’d better get used to it. Via Politico.

Adam Gopnik on simple gun control. Make something difficult and you begin to make it impossible. Via the New Yorker.

The late Tom Clancy and the post-9/11 world. Via the Atlantic.

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