Opinion | You may now freak out about the debt crisis

Catherine talked to lots of experts about the potential fallout, and her latest column charts the seven most likely consequences. Many of them could hit you right in the pocketbook.

Start with the downgrading of Treasurys. Basically every other asset on Earth is benchmarked against these securities, so they get downgraded, too. That’s a disaster, and the other six are no picnic, either.

There are still lots of unknowns, and Congress might yet pull off a deal. But Catherine says it’s time to get a little scared.

Columnists Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman are just relieved that Democrats in Congress are finally afraid. They present a couple of creative (if dubiously constitutional) ways Democrats could sidestep the crisis, and Greg and Paul are urging politicians to consider them. Desperate times and all.

Chaser: The Editorial Board has been hunting for ways to responsibly reduce the debt. Its latest is to trim the government’s expensive agricultural safety net.

Thomas is a toe, foot and leg over the line

Earlier this week, associate editor Ruth Marcus covered the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the ethics (or lack thereof) of Justice Clarence Thomas’s enjoyment of political megadonor Harlan Crow’s “jaw-dropping” largesse.

Little did she know — or didn’t she? Didn’t we all, kind of? — that two more Thomas bombs were about to drop. ProPublica reported on Thursday that Crow also paid thousands of undisclosed dollars in tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew. Then, The Post revealed how judicial activist Leonard Leo in 2012 had Kellyanne Conway secretly pay $25,000 to Ginni Thomas, wife of Clarence, in the same year Leo’s nonprofit advocated for the court to roll back the Voting Rights Act.

Let’s take Ginni first: Ruth writes in her latest column that the revelation raises questions about “direct overlap with the business of the court” and that the justifications of the transfer don’t hold up particularly well. It’s one more reason to revamp the court’s disclosure laws, Ruth says.

In a whole other column, Ruth writes that “The Crow tuition payments cross the line from extraordinary hospitality to direct financial benefit.” Thomas is in Abe Fortas territory, she says, invoking the 1960s justice who resigned in an ethics scandal.

We’ve already had a stern hearing, so … what next? “This is a frustrating question to ponder,” Ruth writes, “given the inevitable gulf between what should happen and what will.”

Chaser: The court’s killing the “Chevron deference” doctrine would cause another outcry, columnist Henry Olsen writes. It should do it anyway.

From Dana Milbank’s column on nighttime light pollution. He learned this fact after a local “Dark Sky Committee” chided him for flipping on the floodlights at his place in the Virginia countryside.

But what does a dark sky matter? You mean, apart from missing out on the majesty of the Milky Way, like 80 percent of North Americans now do?

Dana learned that “in the evolutionary blink of an eye, artificial light has altered migration, mating, foraging, pollination and predation rhythms that developed over eons.” Plus, birds collide with fixtures, bugs fry, baby sea turtles meant to follow the moon get turned around and never make it to water.

Luckily, there’s an extremely easy fix: As Dana writes, “Just turn down the damn lights.”

Chaser: For the stars our naked eyes can’t see, there’s the James Webb telescope. Let graphics columnist Sergio Peçanha walk you through the wonders it has revealed.

Bonus chaser: If you’re around D.C., get to the Smithsonian’s new exhibit on recovering dark skies!

“Baseball has revived itself by remembering something that is encoded in America’s DNA,” umpire George Will rules: “… Impatience.”

George has watched the first weeks of the MLB season eagerly — and, thank God, quickly. Pitch clocks have mowed down the average length of a game.

He is optimistic that, thanks to these adjustments, after years of slouching toward insignificance, baseball might at last reclaim its place as national pastime.

Chaser: Speaking of embattled American entertainment spectacles, Alexandra Petri takes a look at new ideological objections to pretty much every high school musical conceivable. (“Oliver”? Maligns child labor — banned.)

• More than 99 percent of Americans aren’t extremists, contributing columnist Hugh Hewitt writes. Don’t let the tiny minority who are dominate our media and politics.
• Jurors convicting the Proud Boys for their actions on Jan. 6 are getting things right, columnist Eugene Robinson writes.
• Even Tucker Carlson knew Tucker Carlson was out of control, media columnist Erik Wemple reports about the ousted Fox News host.

That night-sky column made it too hard to pass up this real-deal haiku from Kobayashi Issa:

heaven’s river of stars

But still! A Friday bye-ku (Fri-ku!) from reader Laurence D.:

rosemary blue flowers shine

Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. Have a great weekend!