Javier Zarracina and Li Zhou on The astonishing effects of the shutdown, in 8 charts. How can the government expect people to work without pay indefinitely? Federal workers don’t need financial advice — they need a paycheck. The shutdown reveals just how automated our government is. Trump’s border wall creates deep divisions among Texas landowners in its path. Traffickers at the El Chapo trial say drugs aren’t smuggled through open parts of the border. Forget Mexico: Democrats turn focus to porous Canadian border. A border is not a wall — it’s much more interesting. Q&A: How the government shutdown might end.
Why autocrats love emergencies: Crises — real and imaginary — loosen normal constitutional constraints. This is Mitch McConnell’s shutdown. We’re all to blame for the shutdown — that’s what the game theorists say, anyway. This is now the longest government shutdown in US history and there’s no end in sight. “In the White House waiting”: Inside Trump’s defiance on the longest shutdown ever. Don’t make a deal — unless it’s a better deal than Trump is likely to accept. Waiting for a national emergency: Republicans and Democrats have stopped negotiating an end to the government shutdown — it’s crisis-declaring time.
