Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Austin anymore*
On May 12th we set out on a mini-trip that ended up lasting six days. The first big destination was Monahans Sandhills State Park, which we could have gone to by late afternoon on the first day. By then the temperature had already climbed above 90°, so prudence dictated postponing the visit till the next morning. In contrast to the large traces wrought by the wind in the top picture, look below at the tiny tracks a beetle was leaving.
* The title’s a takeoff on a line from the movie The Wizard of Oz.
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The deficit totals $1.6 trillion in fiscal year 2024, grows to $1.8 trillion in 2025, and then returns to $1.6 trillion by 2027. Thereafter, deficits steadily mount, reaching $2.6 trillion in 2034. Measured in relation to gross domestic product (GDP), the deficit amounts to 5.6 percent in 2024, grows to 6.1 percent in 2025, and then shrinks to 5.2 percent in 2027 and 2028. After 2028, deficits climb as a percentage of GDP, returning to 6.1 percent in 2034. Since the Great Depression, deficits have exceeded that level only during and shortly after World War II, the 2007–2009 financial crisis, and the coronavirus pandemic.
Debt held by the public increases from 99 percent of GDP at the end of 2024 to 116 percent of GDP—the highest level ever recorded—by the end of 2034. After 2034, debt would continue to grow if current laws generally remained unchanged.
The Congressional Budget Office issued that scary projection in February. This year, paying just the interest on the country’s enormous debt—which gets us nothing at all for the money—will amount to 3.1% of gross domestic product, which will exceed the 3.0% spent on defense.
The country is headed for disaster unless we change course.
© 2024 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
I love the beetle tracks
beth
May 23, 2024 at 4:39 AM
It was a good find on Eve’s part. I was busy photographing other things and probably wouldn’t have seen it.
Steve Schwartzman
May 23, 2024 at 9:16 AM
Thank you, Steve, for the stunning pictures! I love the beetle making his way somewhere!
As to the deficit, this is what happens when your country rules the world!
Joanna
gabychops
May 23, 2024 at 4:44 AM
A trillion here, a trillion there, and next thing you know you’re talking real money.
Where the beetle was headed, and what for, I have no idea. Given the sharp turn it made, maybe it didn’t know, either.
Steve Schwartzman
May 23, 2024 at 9:24 AM
Thank you, Steve, for your witty reply, it made me smile and rhyme too!
Joanna
gabychops
May 23, 2024 at 9:26 AM
I made some sharp turns, too, and at least I have some good pictures to show for my wanderings.
Steve Schwartzman
May 23, 2024 at 9:36 AM
And they are, indeed, very good, Steve!
Joanna
gabychops
May 23, 2024 at 9:38 AM
In such a scenic place, it would be a poor photographer indeed who couldn’t come away with some good pictures.
Steve Schwartzman
May 23, 2024 at 9:45 AM
True!
gabychops
May 23, 2024 at 10:41 AM
I’m always struck by the way sand and snow respond in similar ways to the presence of wind.
There may not have been any water around, but your little beetle was creating its own wave in the sand: a portion of a sine wave. We could say its motion was a sign of it living in harmony with its environment. (Before I knew you, such a little math joke would have been impossible!)
shoreacres
May 23, 2024 at 6:56 AM
Call your mention of a sine a sign of your enmathification. If you want to borrow that word, I’ll cosine the legal papers.
Now you’ve got me thinking about the possibilities of snow-covered sand dunes.
Steve Schwartzman
May 23, 2024 at 9:21 AM
That’s an interesting change in theme for you. From flowers to bare sand. I wish I could spend more time in the desert. Nice images. As for the country, I don’t really understand how come I pay so much in taxes and there is a debt.
Alessandra Chaves
May 23, 2024 at 7:58 AM
Yes, and a welcome change in theme it is. I did do some wildflower pictures on the trip, but understandably I was much more interested in portraying scenic western landscapes and geological formations—things I can’t do at home.
As for the debt, it arises from never-ending borrowing of money with no way to pay it back. Much of the money we pay in taxes gets wasted on bloated salaries of government employees, many of whom shouldn’t have jobs at all, as well as inefficient and unnecessary programs, including politicians’ pet causes and woke nonsense.
Steve Schwartzman
May 23, 2024 at 9:32 AM
A different landscape, to be sure. Love the beetle tracks–its own ‘wave’ in the environment.
Tina
May 23, 2024 at 12:17 PM
It’s a different kind of different landscape from the one you enjoyed in Costa Rica not so long ago. Both are appealing.
While we know that I photographed the beetle, it’s highly unlikely the beetle knows that it got photographed. I wonder if the beetle even knows that it left tracks in the sand.
Steve Schwartzman
May 23, 2024 at 1:24 PM
I’ve been to Austin but never Kansas. Pretty sure there is no place in Kansas that looks like that though. It’s a great photo, Steve no matter where it was taken.
oneowner
May 23, 2024 at 2:21 PM
“Pass through Austin and come out into a wonderland on the other side.” That’s what I always say—except I’ve never said it before. Maybe now it deserves to be on a Snapple bottle cap.
Steve Schwartzman
May 23, 2024 at 2:34 PM
You quoted that properly, . . . except for ‘Austin’. Most believe that Dorothy said, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
tonytomeo
May 23, 2024 at 11:18 PM
I had the wrong version in my head, too, till I looked up the quotation to make sure I got it right. There are plenty of quotations that persist more in incorrect versions than in the correct one.
Steve Schwartzman
May 23, 2024 at 11:20 PM
the Mandela Effect
tonytomeo
May 23, 2024 at 11:35 PM
I had to look that up. It’s handy to have a name for it.
Steve Schwartzman
May 24, 2024 at 7:41 AM
My first impression was that I was looking at a great desert. Then I reminded myself that Steve lives in Texas. The photo of the sand dune is truly impressive.
Peter Klopp
May 24, 2024 at 10:26 AM
Parts of west Texas are indeed in the Chihuahuan Desert. That includes Monahans, which in its own right is small—but plenty large for me to come away with some good pictures.
Steve Schwartzman
May 24, 2024 at 2:26 PM
Lovely compositions!
Alessandra Chaves
May 25, 2024 at 12:00 PM
Thanks. Dunes are a great place to do photographic abstractions, both on a large scale, as in the top picture, and a small scale, like the bottom one.
Steve Schwartzman
May 25, 2024 at 6:27 PM
The debt is sure concerning. To my knowledge, the last significant period when the U.S. managed to reduce its public debt was between 1998 and 2001, during the Clinton administration. However, since then, the national debt has consistently increased due to factors such as tax cuts, military spending, and responses to economic crises like the last recession and covid.
Alessandra Chaves
May 25, 2024 at 6:58 PM
Yes, it’s worrisome. Regardless of which of the two major parties has been in power recently, spending has kept on going up and up. Some of that was understandable during the emergency the pandemic caused, but much of the spending has been irresponsible. Many people have called for an amendment to the constitution that would require a balanced budget except when there’s a national emergency. Even then, a president could frivolously declare anything to be an emergency, so the amendment would have to include a clause saying that for something to be considered an emergency, Congress must declare it so by a 2/3 majority in both houses.
Steve Schwartzman
May 25, 2024 at 7:24 PM
Magnificent whether it’s mighty or miniature.
Gallivanta
May 25, 2024 at 9:42 PM
Both ends of the scale have their allure for a photographer enamored of designs and abstractions.
Steve Schwartzman
May 25, 2024 at 9:55 PM