Echoes in the Break - The Blame Game Presented by Harold Michael Harvey Ongoing Legal Contributor

 

Echoes in the Break

Shutdown as Syncopation

Harold Michael Harvey

Photo by Joseph Chan on Unsplash For some, a government shutdown is a lapse in funding. For others, it’s a lapse in faith. But for those of us who listen for rhythm in the civic body, it’s something else entirely: a syncopated break in the democratic score. The shutdown is not silent—it’s syncopation. A deliberate disruption in the expected rhythm, where absence becomes its own kind of signal. In this pause, we hear what’s been buried: the groan of underfunded schools, the hush of shuttered clinics. The static of stalled progress. “The legal authority for continued operations either exists or it does not,” Benjamin Civiletti opined in 1980, trying to fashion a rule for how the federal government should operate when the government runs out of money and Congress has not authorized new spending before the deadline. Civiletti’s memo, penned at the end of the Carter administration, transformed shutdowns from informal delays into legal ruptures. Before him, agencies operated on faith—trusting Congress would eventually restore the beat. After him, the law demanded silence when funding ceased. The Anti-Deficiency Act of 1870 became the metronome of dysfunction. In the last 50 years, there have been twelve government stoppages. Here is a list of the major ones and their aftermath. 1975: Ford’s shutdown was quiet, almost apologetic. Agencies continued to operate, trusting that Congress would restore the funding. It was a moment before Civiletti’s pen turned pauses into prohibitions. 2013: Obama’s shutdown was a siege. The Affordable Care Act was the battleground, and the budget was the weapon of choice. The rhythm was broken not by accident, but by design. 2025: Trump’s shutdown is a purge. The Office of Management and Budget isn’t just pausing services—it’s reshaping the bureaucracy itself. The shutdown is no longer a missed beat—it’s a rewritten score. Trump wants to rewrite the score by firing thousands of federal employees. Democrats want to prevent medical insurance costs from skyrocketing. But every day, Americans have a say in this shutdown too, and they should raise their voices loud and clear for the America they want, apart from the partisan lines spouted by both sides in this dispute. Each moment marks a shift—from pause to protest to purge. The rhythm isn’t just missed—it’s being manipulated. Like jazz, democracy thrives on tension. The offbeat is where truth lives. Shutdowns reveal who sets the tempo, who gets silenced, and who insists on singing anyway. This moment demands more than observation—it demands authorship. We must remember that syncopation is not collapse, it is resistance. It is the griot’s pause before the truth lands. It is the community’s insistence on gathering even when the lights go out. “Faithful execution of the laws cannot rest on mere speculation.” —Civiletti, 1980 Let us gather stories of those furloughed, those forgotten, those who kept the rhythm alive despite silence. Let us build a counter-archive, a syncopated testimony that refuses to be erased. Let educators teach the shutdown not as a budgetary footnote, but as a civic rupture. Let organizers use this moment to recompose the score. Let artists and authors write the beat back into American life. After all, whose government is it anyway? !!! The shutdown has become a stage, not for governance, but for performance. Each side points fingers with rehearsed precision, casting blame like a call-and-response chorus. But the audience—us—is left without resolution, only noise. President Trump’s administration has choreographed a messaging blitz: Federal agencies post banners blaming “Radical Left Democrats.” The White House website features a live clock tracking how long “Democrats have shut down the government.” Out-of-office email templates for furloughed Workers are scripted to assign blame. Meanwhile, Democrats counter with their own refrain. They claim exclusion from negotiations, demand ACA subsidy extensions before agreeing to any funding bill, and the Democratic National Committee fires back: “Republicans own this shutdown.” This is not governance. It’s branding. The shutdown is no longer a lapse in funding. It’s a rupture in rhythm, choreographed for maximum spectacle. The syncopation is not accidental. It’s strategic. A missed beat designed to distract, distort, and divide. As I wrote above, titled Shutdown as Syncopation, “The beat is not broken. It is being manipulated.” And yet, in this cacophony, we must listen for the deeper rhythm. The rhythm of those who are furloughed. The rhythm of students whose aid is delayed. The rhythm of communities whose services are suspended. Let us not be spectators to this spectacle. Let us be composers. Let us write the next measure, but not in blame, but in memory, not in spectacle, but in stewardship. We can build a counter-archive. We can gather testimonies. We can syncopate the silence with truth. “Even in the dark, the drum speaks,” cited from Field notes from the Georgia Sea Islands, 1939. The shutdown is not silent; it’s syncopation. A deliberate disruption in the expected rhythm, where absence becomes its own kind of signal. In this pause, we hear what’s been buried: the groan of underfunded schools, the hush of shuttered clinics, the static of stalled progress. “The legal authority for continued operations either exists or it does not,” Benjamin Civiletti said in 1980. We have gone from Gerald Ford’s 1975 quiet delay to Obama’s 2013 ideological siege, and now, Trump’s 2025 bureaucratic purge. Forty-seven is using the shutdown to fire thousands of federal workers, all the while blaming the Democrats for his ill intent to inflict maximum pain on the American public, who are dazed thus far by the razzle-dazzle blitzkrieg of nine months of Project 2025. Each shutdown marks a shift from pause to protest to purge. The rhythm isn’t just missed, it’s being manipulated. Shutdowns erase more than services. They erase memory. Each furlough is a forgetting. Each closed office is a silenced archive. But memory resists. It lives in the griot’s voice, the jazz riff, and the community archive. “A nation that forgets its past has no future,” Winston Churchill said. Each shutdown comes without a whimper, reminding leaders of the pain felt by the people in the previous shutdown. The shutdown has become a stage. Federal agencies post banners. Out-of-office emails assign blame. The spectacle distracts from the rupture. But we must listen for the deeper rhythm. “The beat is not broken. It is being manipulated,” I’ve written elsewhere. Our ancestors knew how to survive in times of pause. They made rhythm from rupture. Spirituals bent melody around absence. Field hollers turned isolation into call-and-response. Shutdowns echo that legacy, not in reverence, but in distortion. We must reclaim it. “The silence is not empty. It is encoded,” I wrote when the Supreme Court turned a blind eye to the U. S. Constitution. Shutdowns dim the lights. But they do not extinguish the score. We write in the margins. We sing in the silence. We syncopate the shutdown. We survive and are reborn. “Even in the dark, the drum speaks.” —Field notes from the Georgia Sea Islands, 1939 Think of a moment when the rhythm broke. Who kept the beat alive? Write your verse, bend the silence, host a listening circle, build a counter-archive, teach the shutdown as rupture, visualize the silence, and reclaim the narrative. If this rhythm resonates with you, join the drumline, share this post to amplify the beat, and contribute your own verse to the civic score, because in the end, a new nation will rise out of the syncopated ashes of Project 2025. Thank you, Michael, for your Guidance! God Bless  Gabby

Consider Those Who Are Humble...AND more - Thoughtful Words From Through the Year With Jimmy Carter...

Today you have the opportunity to be an important part of our democratic nation... You have the chance to Vote... I hope you will, first, stop and listen to the most important influencer you have available to you... God Our Father... Humble yourself before the one and only King to whom we bow in Love...Because He first loved US!

Courageous Humility 

Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.”

DANIEL 2:27 – 28 Nebuchadnezzar was a powerful, brutal, and intelligent king who one night had a disturbing dream. He woke up worried about what this dream could mean for himself and for his people, so he summoned his advisors and said, “Interpret my dream for me.” These charlatans thought, Let’s just make up something. How will he know the difference? So they asked the king to describe his dream. But King Nebuchadnezzar knew his men. “Before you tell me what my dream meant,” he demanded, “you must tell me what my dream was.” The advisors objected, “Nobody can do that, not even the gods!” Their rash response angered King Nebuchadnezzar and he replied, “If you can’t tell me my dream and what it meant, then I’ll have you all executed.” So the king issued a blanket order to decapitate his advisors and bury their corpses in dung heaps. As advisors-in-training, Daniel and his three friends were included in this murderous order. So when Daniel heard about it, he asked for a little time. He and his friends prayed earnestly, and that night God implanted in Daniel’s mind the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. The next day, Daniel appeared before the king. When the king asked if Daniel could describe his dream and interpret it, Daniel humbly replied that no mere mortal could do so; however, he knew a God in heaven who “reveals mysteries.” Then Daniel told the king what he wanted to hear, thus saving the lives of all the king’s advisors. Daniel refused to take credit for what only God could do. The king got his answer, but only through what we might call courageous humility — confidence based on submission to God — something we could all use. 

O Lord, thank you for showing me, in the life of Daniel, what can happen when courage meets humility. I know from Daniel’s story that you used him in great ways for many years, for he never lost either his courage or his humility. May that be true of me too as I seek to emulate the perfect example of Jesus Christ. I pray these things in his name. Amen.

ONLY GOD CAN DO IT! 

Depend on God 

“Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy.”

NUMBERS 11:13 – 14 At some point in their wilderness wanderings, the Israelites grew tired of manna, their “bread from heaven.” They wanted meat and demanded that Moses give it to them. Angry and frustrated, Moses cried out, “Lord, I can’t do this by myself!” Notice that he didn’t say, “I can’t do this.” Rather, he said he couldn’t bear his burden without God’s help. When we feel overwhelmed with anguish or bereft of confidence and hope, we should remember Moses’ cry. We would do well to follow his example and cry out, “God, I can’t do this by myself. I need you!” In times of acute need, let’s reaffirm our ties of dependence upon God Almighty. Troubling experiences often bring this truth to our consciousness. In dark times, we learn that we cannot depend on ourselves alone. We go through a period of anxiety and fear, and then, finally, we put our faith in God — not easily, not quickly, not as a matter of certainty, but because we search our hearts and souls and say, “I’m not able on my own to face these circumstances. I must turn to God Almighty." We all have troubles in life. Maybe we set a goal for ourselves that lies beyond our ability. We may lose someone we love or suffer serious illness or face a temptation we cannot overcome. At such times, we often feel reluctant to admit our inadequacy and instead blame our troubles on other factors. And so long as we refuse to rely on God, we continue to suffer. Let’s not do that. The next time we feel inadequate or overwhelmed, let’s seek a divine partner in prayer and depend on God’s incredible wisdom and strength. 

Lord, when I feel overwhelmed by life and imagine that my burdens are too heavy, help me remember that you are the answer to my difficulties. You promise to help me through my Savior, Jesus Christ, who died to wipe away my sins. Use my troubles to lead me to a greater life, a successful life as measured by your holy standards. I ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. 

Those Who Wander 

“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.'”

REVELATION 7:17 Sheep win no awards for intelligence. Since most have no mind of their own, they tend to follow whoever’s in front. That’s why shepherds have to watch their flocks all the time. If they don’t, some their sheep almost certainly will wander off. Sheep may seem big at first sight, but once you shear them, they shrink. Once on a visit to Australia, we stopped at a farm during sheep shearing time; and when they discovered I used to shear sheep on our farm as a boy, they trained a TV camera on me and made me shear one of those poor animals. Somehow I got through the process, and by the time I finished, that sheep looked very small (I won’t tell you what else it looked like). A sheep shorn of its wool shows its utter vulnerability — not a pretty sight. The Bible compares us to sheep because we reflect many of the animal’s unflattering characteristics. We don’t always adhere to our beliefs and convictions; too easily we get led off into sin and error. So the prophet Zechariah noted, “The people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd” (Zechariah 10:2). In fact, the Bible often uses the phrase “like sheep without a shepherd” to describe us (see Numbers 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; Matthew 9:36). Without a shepherd, we have little hope. But thank God we do have a Shepherd, Jesus Christ, whom Peter calls “the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25). Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:14), the Great Shepherd (Hebrews 13:20), and the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4). And as our Shepherd, he will lead us to springs of living water, where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Revelation 7:17). It’s really not so bad being a sheep — so long as Jesus is your Shepherd. 

O God, thank you for revealing yourself not only as the Shepherd of Israel, but also as my Shepherd. Too often I wander off and make myself prey for all sorts of wolves. But you are always there, watching over me, directing me, and protecting me. Thank you for bringing me into your flock — and as you have blessed me, so make me a blessing to others. In Jesus’ precious name I pray. Amen. 

VOTE FOR GOD'S TRUTH

ALLOW HIM TO SPEAK TO YOUR HEART!

LISTEN, HEAR, AND ACT ON HIS TRUTH!

Kierstead Writes on Work, Evolution, Lint, Boogers...and More!

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Save the Rats!
Oh, wait, does this go under Pets or Work?

The Lost Dialogues of Table 18


Kevin A. Kierstead






Reading the first book by Kierstead (I'll be reviewing three), I confess I was often thrown back into some big family get-togethers when a number of my nephews would come together and start talking. I can also remember that many times, the women in the room would yell, "oh gross..." and promptly get up to leave. We all agreed, it's a guy thing... Or, if you are a gal that enjoys weird humor...hey, go for it!

Now, I'm just going to go for the gold here folks. How often, do you consider the possibility of collecting boogers for the purpose of using them to create something? "I guarantee you that I could buy 50 lbs. of boogers for under $20 in a single day." (p. 81). Of course, the discussion didn't get deep enough to figure out how many people needed to acquire 50 lbs.

And then, I thought, there was the seasonal issue when there would be none because snot is prevalent in winter...

This small book also contains similar short essays on The Purpose of Life, Evolution, War, Pets, Men and Women, Political News, U.F.O.s, Buzz Words, Work, Bugs, Music, The Beach, Penguin, and Scam, Lint and Education. As you can see, the eclectic range of information is surely going to capture your immediate attention.

Take, for instance, Pets, which are one of my interests... This discussion started with sharing that a "Facebook" member talked about how cruel it was to put a dog to death and added photo after photo of those dogs scheduled. Now I must admit this one almost turned me off. But then, the question was broadened. Why didn't the girl post pictures of rats or snakes...for surely they had just as much right to be kept alive (especially with your money?) Still, finally, I did have to agree with the basic question...What leads an individual to take up causes such as "Save the Whales" for surely they've never met one or had one as a close friend?

Just don't say too much about cats, my personal friends...

Another topic that interested me was Work...It seems that work has been a main part of my life since I was adult. Like the woman they discussed, I Loved my job. Well, it was quickly determined that she, and I guess I, was lying...

Given what happened during the last few years of that job...I had to agree...

And then there was the dialogue on evolution. Now everybody knows that arguments go on continuously about this topic, so I wasn't expecting..."What if I told you evolution was an illusion.” (p. 13)

I didn't think I could create a good argument on that...

Because finally, I had already read “You know,” I said, “I got to thinking on the way in here; what is the purpose of life if you set aside all religions?” (p. 1)

And I realized that once I knew God, there was really not much more reason to discuss it after that...

Kevin A. Kierstead is not a standup comedian, but he was born in a distant galaxy...so that certainly explains just about everything, right? (And by the way, there's an essay about those who add "right?" or "isn't that right?" that you won't want to miss.) Highly recommended for those who enjoy humor about everyday life. A perfect gift for a brother, cousin, nephew...or your frat brother...LOL

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