“With this action, EPA is delivering organizational improvements to the personnel structure that will directly benefit the American people and better advance the agency’s core mission, while Powering the Great American Comeback.”
the amount of doublespeak in this administration is unreal. Destruction of public institutions is announced as an improvement. The agency's "core mission" remains unstated so they don't need to square the circle on how destroying consumer info helps improve the environment.
nothercastle · 3h ago
Energy star like CAFE for cars was well intentioned but ended up driving all sorts of undesirable design practices to hit the ratings. Manufacturers especially in the high end chase the highest rating and design appliances that do a poor job of cleaning to hit the low water use target. In the end we all end up eating a bunch of unwashed detergent to save a gallon of water or using 10 gallons to pre and post rinse.
That being said a lot of these problems could have been updated into the standard instead of killing it but industry groups didn’t allow that so now it’s going to die and everyone losses.
rco8786 · 3h ago
This is a great microcosm example of this admin’s whole strategy.
There’s some issues with the current regulations. So instead of doing the work to fix the issues, they just abruptly cancel the entire program.
Baby. Bath water.
nothercastle · 2h ago
Canceling is easier than fixing, it may turn out to be easier to rebuild during the next admin than it would have been to fix so that’s one ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak outcome.
rco8786 · 2h ago
Yea, phoenix rising from the ashes or whatever. It's just kind of amazing how many people are convinced that "cancelling" is actually the "fix".
mcphage · 1h ago
> during the next admin
During the what?
nothercastle · 1h ago
Trump isn’t seeking another term, he’s also quite old. There will be a next administration even with the most pessimistic outlook
tomrod · 22m ago
Can't seek. Banned by Constitution.
bryanlarsen · 7m ago
Many things that are currently happening are also banned by the constitution.
graemep · 3h ago
> but industry groups didn’t allow that so now it’s going to die and everyone losses.
The fact that "Industry groups" like a regulation is an indication that they have managed to turn it into a means to reduce competition.
chriskanan · 2h ago
My dishwasher from the 1990s dried much better than the one I got in 2021, which required rinsing each dish after washing to get rid of the soap taste. It then broke after only 1.5 years. My new one is better, but still leaves dishes pretty wet and I still have to rinse a lot of cups to get rid of the soap residue.
detourdog · 18m ago
That is not related to energy star. This is the state of modern products. I have found that the price tier of well performing appliances usually has an above average price.
prof-dr-ir · 3h ago
[citation needed]
mjevans · 3h ago
I believe it; it's like the first decade or two of low-flow / flush toilets which were generally just terrible and ineffective.
Hopefully, like the toilets, a new standard rises that is based around how effective something is at it's primary job _first_, with efficiency in other areas then measured after completing the intended task.
nothercastle · 3h ago
The appliance industry found a hack to prevent or at least greatly delay consumers rejecting bad products by creating thousands of skus for nearly identical products that made identifying lemons nearly impossible. Similar to how Chinese brands on Amazon have the same name for 100 different nearly identical items.
mcphage · 1h ago
> thousands of skus for nearly identical products that made identifying lemons nearly impossible
Also to prevent price-matching.
nothercastle · 1h ago
That too, tvs do that as well but at least it’s somewhat possible to compare and review them
detourdog · 3h ago
That is where I expect care in product development. A standard is a number to hit and if a manufacturer takes care in their work the consumer should experience no degradation in quality.
leereeves · 3h ago
Well said.
I have one of those "low-flush" toilets. I have to flush it twice, so I end up using more water than a regular toilet.
morsch · 3h ago
Looking at the averages, that's still less water.
rubitxxx · 3h ago
This is the dilemma: some things need regulation, but they need good regulation that evolves over time, and you can’t just throw money at that, you need good leadership to oversee it.
Deleting it is not a solution.
nothercastle · 3h ago
Part of it that allowing industries to essentially self regulate means consumer interest are never part of the regulation.
phendrenad2 · 3h ago
Who cares. Maybe now I can get a washing machine that actually washes my clothes. You'd think at the $1,100 price point, a washing machine should actually work, even with the strict Energy Star standards, but everyone on Reddit suggests switching to a LITERAL commercial washing machine (Speed Queen). Famously-liberal Reddit is suggesting switching to a LOUD, WASTEFUL washing machine because it actually works. I think that says a lot about the current state of things.
tzs · 2h ago
Most people have no trouble getting clean clothes from any washing machine that gets a high rating at Consumer Reports or Wirecutter.
The main reasons for going with a commercial Speed Queen for people other than the few who can't manage to get consumer washers to clean their clothes are:
• They last a lot longer and are usually easier and/or cheaper to repair if they do break.
• They have more models without internet and apps. A basic commercial model will often be like the washer you might remember your parents had: something with a simple interface that just had a few basic cycles and washed your clothes well for decades. (Their fancier commercial models aimed to bigger laundromats might have internet and cloud based management, which can be very useful commercially for managing a fleet of machines).
dgacmu · 3h ago
That's weird. My LG front loader has been amazing for 6+ years now. Washes well, super quiet, and energy efficient enough that I ran a load while my house was operating on battery during a 4 day power outage. I would totally buy another one.
tomrod · 20m ago
My nibling in needs, have you heard the gospel of Speed Queen?
WalterGR · 3h ago
Could you link to that Reddit discussion? I’d like to get a new washer for my mom.
Edit: Probably this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/comments/1jco8a1/recommenda... . Speed Queen, Whirlpool, LG, and other brands are recommended. Reading the reviews after you’ve purchased something is always painful! Have you heard of Consumer Reports? They at least used to be pretty reliable.
phendrenad2 · 3h ago
I spent some time today reading Reddit reviews and complaints about appliances, even the top-tier brands (LG, Samsung) seem to have frequent complaints. I'm also in the market for a new washing machine, so I'll probably just buy one of those and take my chances. Speed Queen is apparently really reliable and efficient, but is probably too loud for me.
chneu · 3h ago
It's almost as if people don't know how to wash their clothes.
If a machine is working for the vast majority of people then it isn't usually the machine.
Washing machines fall under the same umbrella as dishwashers for me. They work amazingly well but there will always be a decent chunk of people who claim they just never get dishes clean.
It has nothing to do with the dishwasher. It has to do with how people use them incorrectly.
CoastalCoder · 3h ago
I've used Consumer Reports I'm that past, and found that their ratings poorly matched my experience.
I don't doubt their integrity, but I no longer use them.
zbrozek · 3h ago
Your experience matches mine. I also found that their coverage of products was simply too thin to be meaningful for me.
cratermoon · 3h ago
CU has a bit of a weird scale.
It seems to go for the intersection of good and cheap,
which doesn't typically mean high quality.
The best rated stuff is typically mid-range,
lower cost-of-ownership,
but nothing special.
wildzzz · 2h ago
They try to find what is going to cost the least amount of money for both now and in the future, likely within the warranty period. Mid-range and low cost of ownership is exactly what many people want. Consumer Reports' market isn't tech evangelists looking for washing machines with AI in them, they are normal users looking to replace an appliance in the least painful way possible. When you have a surprise expense like an appliance, you likely just want to spend as little as possible. Someone paying for consumer reports probably has enough money to afford paying a little more upfront for a mid-range model. If they wanted the cheapest model, they wouldn't be looking at reviews, they'd just buy the cheapest. If they were in the market for luxury models, they'd just go buy a matching set from a luxury brand, money isn't much of an issue so who cares how well it performs over time?
djaychela · 3h ago
Not sure where you are or what washer you own.... But I bought a new Samsung last year and it's excellent. Uses very little energy, quick washes if needed and washes my filthy mechanic work clothes perfectly at low temperatures.
And it cost under £400
singleshot_ · 3h ago
If you can't find a washer that "actually washes" your clothes today, you probably won't be able to now either. It's not the washer.
(It's probably not your clothes, either).
margalabargala · 3h ago
Whose fault is it then, if dirty clothes placed in the washer remain dirty after a "wash" cycle?
Malic · 2h ago
It may be a simple case of overloading the washer. Assuming a front loading washer (common these days), if the clothes can’t “tumble”, they’re not going to come out clean.
orwin · 25m ago
Exactly why my grandma couldn't use modern front loading machine and still used her antique until she passed. Couldn't make her understand that packing it as much as she did was a mistake.
kyledrake · 3h ago
The goal of the program is to reduce the tragedy of the commons that causes the municipal water supply to run out, making it so that nobody's Speed Queen works anymore. Given the contrast, I would prefer a slightly derpy washing machine to no access to running water.
That said, your complaints about HE side loaders are not misplaced, they aren't very good.
lima · 3h ago
Energy Star is entirely voluntary.
Manufacturers make energy-efficient appliances because consumers prefer them over less efficient appliances, not because the government is forcing them.
briHass · 3h ago
If that is the case, then there should be no need for Energy Star, because manufacturers already have an incentive to increase efficiency due to customer demand.
I'm highly dubious of the $500b this program has claimed to save consumers. Almost without fail, efficiency improvements in home appliances has greatly increased complexity (less reliable), reduced common components across brands (higher cost to fix), increase purchase price, and compromised actual performance.
throw0101d · 2h ago
> If that is the case, then there should be no need for Energy Star, because manufacturers already have an incentive to increase efficiency due to customer demand.
Energy Star is handy because it's a known quality with set standards. If there was no standard companies could start doing all sorts of marketing BS with meaningless numbers. With ES you know what you're getting and it's a apples-apples comparison.
Same with dishwasher: Energy Star means some specific, and if a unit has a sticker than it's at (at least) the same level as another unit with the sticker. An OEM has now go above and beyond that in features.
Contrast that with the MaP Test, which is voluntary in the toilet industry, which most manufacturers use if those it is voluntary:
If there was an ES-equivalent standard for laundry then perhaps Energy Star itself would not be needed at that point.
chneu · 2h ago
Lol are you serious? We know companies make worse versions of products on purpose.
Free market evangelist people are out of touch with reality.
jfengel · 3h ago
Huh. My clothes always get clean just fine in my middle-of-the-road residential machine.
Maybe the tree huggers at Reddit are spending a lot of time hugging pine trees. Pine sap is hard to get out.
astura · 3h ago
My washing machine works just fine??
marxisttemp · 3h ago
you talk a lot in your comments about wanting to avoid politics but almost all of your comments mention politics
LastTrain · 3h ago
“I’d give up the liberties of some people, not me, for a decent washing machine”.
cdot2 · 3h ago
What liberties are being given up by using a commercial washing machine?
whatshisface · 4h ago
I wouldn't want to ascribe too much method to this madness, but the increases for defense, homeland security and immigration control in the 2026 budget request, combined with a desire to be seen as cutting the budget rather than increasing spending, could have set the extreme civilian costcutting requirements.
What the administration is preparing for that requires raising defense spending to one trillion is beyond me. Actually it's not.
tomrod · 3h ago
It's not madness, it's political targeting in excess of good governance.
graemep · 3h ago
> What the administration is preparing for that requires raising defense spending to one trillion is beyond me.
A cold war with China. Everything they are doing is based around that expectation.
whatshisface · 3h ago
Cutting national science foundation funding by 55% doesn't match with a cold war against a peer adversary, so I'm leaning towards Iran being the imagined target.
bryanrasmussen · 3h ago
Iran might be a sensible adversary in some reasoning, so that's out. How about exactly what they've said - a multi front war with Greenland, Panama and maybe Canada?
Leaving that aside, the US is hugely more powerful than Denmark, Panama and Canada combined. If could walk over all three right now - no need for increased military expenditure.
Iran has been preparing to fight the US, and will probably have fanatics who will fight on after defeat of the military creating an Iraq like situation - but AFAIK the direction of expenditure is wrong for that as preparing for that would require spending on counter insurgency and boots on the ground. There would also be lots of support from other countries in the region for that.
The ONLY country that is a peer rival to the US is China.
Other nuclear powers are probably able to deter the US, but only China can actually fight it in a conventional war.
concinds · 2h ago
Trump has embedded so many China hawks in analytical/natsec/fopo roles deep in the bureaucracy that even if he turned into a complete dove, the US would likely still enter a new Cold War through sheer institutional inertia alone.
They’re cutting the NSF because they’re high on their own supply and misunderstand the causes of US dominance, it’s a poor indicator of their intentions.
squigz · 3h ago
> What the administration is preparing for that requires raising defense spending to one trillion is beyond me. Actually it's not.
Why do you think America is suddenly 'preparing' for something? Hasn't defence spending steadily increased for quite a long time now?
whatshisface · 3h ago
>Hasn't defence spending steadily increased for quite a long time now?
The administration has expressed a desire to destroy several other countries over the last year. Iran, Denmark's autonomous territory Greenland and Canada stand out for being explicitly named, and China for being a career target of important advisors. Iran out of all these is singled out by congressional support and a history of military action in the region. In conclusion, the administration most likely wants to invade Iran.
>...expressed a desire to destroy several other countries... Canada stand out for being explicitly named
A bit of banter about Canada being economically or political subordinate to the US is not even remotely in the same ballpark as expressing a desire to destroy Canada. Even the literal meaning of what was obviously a joke is not remotely in the same ballpark. This is the same kind of thing I've been hearing my entire life; it means no more than the old adage "when America sneezes, Canada catches a cold".
I say this as a left-wing Canadian, btw.
Regarding Iran, the headline of your source already contradicts you, as does the article. Bombing is not invasion, and a threat made to get what you actually want (a "nuclear deal") is not expressing desire to execute the threat (it is in fact explicitly saying that you want something else).
Is this bad? Sure. Is it an unusual level of saber rattling (especially from someone who didn't come across as much of a military interventionist in his first term)? I suppose so. But it is not anything like "an expressed desire to destroy other countries". It is not warmongering.
All the recent headlines about "not ruling out" various military actions are just decades-old MAD policy applied to conventional warfare.
> Not as a percentage of GDP.
Right, so by your own source:
* Spending as a percentage of GDP recently peaked in 2010 (in the middle of Obama's first term);
* Spending as a percentage of GDP recently bottomed out in 2017-2018 (in the middle of Trump's first term);
* If we apply the 2010 percentage to 2022, the US would have already been at 1.25T in spending - while this thread is expressing concern because of approaching the 1T mark. Notwithstanding the import shock, US GDP has been recently growing rather impressively, too - see e.g. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP/ .)
Also, the implication of your phrasing is that an increase as a percentage of GDP is happening or will happen soon, but you left out any evidence for that.
I very much don't like that the US spends this much on the military (about 3x as much as China, next on the leaderboard); but it's not historically out of line, nor does it look like an indication of trouble afoot.
whatshisface · 2h ago
Bombing isn't a contradiction to invasion. It's a step forward on the scale of escalation.
mcphage · 1h ago
> Even the literal meaning of what was obviously a joke
He has stated repeatedly that it is not a joke. I’m not sure what it’ll take to get you to believe him.
> This is the same kind of thing I've been hearing my entire life
Previous Presidents have not repeatedly expressed the desire to make Canada a state.
singleshot_ · 3h ago
I'd be a little more concerned about offense spending than defense spending with this guy.
tomrod · 3h ago
The Mad King Trump wants all the trappings of North Korea, with military parades and silencing of political dissent.
Ignores Congress (impoundment), ignores SCOTUS (Abrego Garcia), corruptly enriches himself from his position (Meme coin), cuts social programs (numerous), encourages stochastic terrorism (numerous), and expresses sentiments fully divorced from reality or otherwise distracting from heinous and corrupt actions.
No comments yet
trollbridge · 4h ago
I always chuckle when I boot up some old PC with a clone BIOS in 86Box and the Energy Star logo pops up.
bombcar · 3h ago
What did that even mean? The PC supported some form of sleep?
detourdog · 3h ago
The BIOS controls the energy usage of the PC which would include the ability to sleep.
I wonder whether without this albeit flawed quality indicator we would see competition focused purely on price and margins would shrink.
j45 · 2h ago
Maybe a private non-profit can startup in it's place for the time being.
ginko · 3h ago
They could adopt the EU energy label instead.
newsclues · 4h ago
If it’s a valuable program someone else can do the work.
Oh no, the government is not doing something… so someone can turn it into a business or start a nonprofit or academia can do something useful.
And government resources can help other more critical projects.
whatshisface · 4h ago
The government has a couple of things that a startup doesn't:
1. The trust of the public. (This is essential for certifications.)
2. The ability to borrow at the lowest interest rate. (This is mainly due to the above.)
That makes spending to organize or coordinate the industry and the public a natural government activity.
tomrod · 3h ago
Also, provision of public goods.
detourdog · 3h ago
Our New England town hall has on display the weights and scales that were used to regulate our local trade. Measuring energy usage seems like a natural expansion of this role.
Even the empire had Imperial Bureau of Standards.
anonym29 · 3h ago
Energy Star didn't only measure energy usage, it restricted freedom of trade between what were otherwise two parties voluntarily engaging in trade with no fraud, coercion, or deceit.
Poor analogy.
margalabargala · 2h ago
Energy Star is an entirely voluntary program. It restricted nothing.
detourdog · 2h ago
I would need more information on the restriction of trade.
tomrod · 23m ago
It can't be provided since it is fake.
anonym29 · 3h ago
The government does not have the trust of the public. Presidential approval ratings in recent administrations have been under 50% on both sides of the aisle and Congress is even lower than that.
If anything, distrust of government is nearly a core value inherent to being an American, again - regardless of which side you're on. Stonewall, George Floyd Protests, and Jan 6 were all protests against government, and they're all progress compared to the past, when these tensions would have instead started armed conflicts, like the anti-government sentiment that started both the revolutionary war and the civil war.
wildzzz · 2h ago
Presidential approval ratings have little to do with the public's approval of the bureaucracy that sits in the background, quietly making their lives better
anonym29 · 2h ago
You're of the opinion that the public's approval of the bureaucracy is higher, rather than lower? president > congress > nameless, faceless bureaucracy
newsclues · 3h ago
The trust is the energy star brand, not the organization that owns it. Also parts of the public do not trust government.
Not sure why a long running and effective program needs government to borrow money, especially if industry finds the program valuable (enough to fund).
I’m fine with government starting programs like this, but think they should eventually be divested and run as self sufficient organizations and not constantly be a drain on the taxpayer.
whatshisface · 3h ago
Why would anyone trust the EnergyStar trademark if it had been sold to an entity that was not trusted?
margalabargala · 2h ago
Every dollar spent on Energy Star yielded about $340 of consumer savings. How is this a "drain"?
fzeroracer · 3h ago
Does your argument equally apply to things like food standards and safety? I'm curious where your cutoff for this is, or if you genuinely believe the government should provide no services at all.
delfinom · 3h ago
The problem is industry is under capitalism. They have all the incentive to start their own programs, numerous multiples of that are completely misleading and unfair to one up each other on marketing.
Instead of their being one central neutral auditor.
newsclues · 3h ago
If your claim is the problem is capitalism, and that industry is beholden to it, your argument fails to consider the government’s relationship with capitalism.
brookst · 3h ago
It’s not perfectly transitive.
Three things that can all be true:
1. Industry has no incentive to improve per-unit efficiency if it impacts price
2. Government is largely beholden to industry, especially in oligarch America.
3. A government efficiency mandate can be better than nothing.
ImPostingOnHN · 3h ago
If your claim is the problem is the government and/or it's relationship with capitalism, your argument fails to consider capitalism
constantcrying · 3h ago
I don't know why you get down voted for saying something so sensible.
You are exactly right. Industry can create their own certification scheme with some independent entity, which sets the certification standards. Energy star is not safety relevant, which is the one thing which government arguably should have oversight over.
fzeroracer · 3h ago
Why should the government have oversight over safety? If it's so critical, then the industry can create their own independent entity and safety scheme.
constantcrying · 3h ago
>Why should the government have oversight over safety?
Because the additional cost is worth it when lives are at stake.
Cost doesn't mean just mean money. Government oversight creates significant friction and there needs to be a very good reason to accept that friction into an industry. Risk to human lives is one of the few things where it is sensible to introduce that friction.
orwin · 15m ago
Can you help me remember what was the standard for charging small devices until a government took the reins and forced the industry to cooperate? Was it more or less friction for everyone?
Government are there to prevent friction for its citizens, not for faceless entities.
the amount of doublespeak in this administration is unreal. Destruction of public institutions is announced as an improvement. The agency's "core mission" remains unstated so they don't need to square the circle on how destroying consumer info helps improve the environment.
There’s some issues with the current regulations. So instead of doing the work to fix the issues, they just abruptly cancel the entire program.
Baby. Bath water.
During the what?
The fact that "Industry groups" like a regulation is an indication that they have managed to turn it into a means to reduce competition.
Hopefully, like the toilets, a new standard rises that is based around how effective something is at it's primary job _first_, with efficiency in other areas then measured after completing the intended task.
Also to prevent price-matching.
I have one of those "low-flush" toilets. I have to flush it twice, so I end up using more water than a regular toilet.
Deleting it is not a solution.
The main reasons for going with a commercial Speed Queen for people other than the few who can't manage to get consumer washers to clean their clothes are:
• They last a lot longer and are usually easier and/or cheaper to repair if they do break.
• They have more models without internet and apps. A basic commercial model will often be like the washer you might remember your parents had: something with a simple interface that just had a few basic cycles and washed your clothes well for decades. (Their fancier commercial models aimed to bigger laundromats might have internet and cloud based management, which can be very useful commercially for managing a fleet of machines).
Edit: Probably this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/comments/1jco8a1/recommenda... . Speed Queen, Whirlpool, LG, and other brands are recommended. Reading the reviews after you’ve purchased something is always painful! Have you heard of Consumer Reports? They at least used to be pretty reliable.
If a machine is working for the vast majority of people then it isn't usually the machine.
Washing machines fall under the same umbrella as dishwashers for me. They work amazingly well but there will always be a decent chunk of people who claim they just never get dishes clean.
It has nothing to do with the dishwasher. It has to do with how people use them incorrectly.
I don't doubt their integrity, but I no longer use them.
And it cost under £400
(It's probably not your clothes, either).
That said, your complaints about HE side loaders are not misplaced, they aren't very good.
Manufacturers make energy-efficient appliances because consumers prefer them over less efficient appliances, not because the government is forcing them.
I'm highly dubious of the $500b this program has claimed to save consumers. Almost without fail, efficiency improvements in home appliances has greatly increased complexity (less reliable), reduced common components across brands (higher cost to fix), increase purchase price, and compromised actual performance.
Energy Star is handy because it's a known quality with set standards. If there was no standard companies could start doing all sorts of marketing BS with meaningless numbers. With ES you know what you're getting and it's a apples-apples comparison.
Same with dishwasher: Energy Star means some specific, and if a unit has a sticker than it's at (at least) the same level as another unit with the sticker. An OEM has now go above and beyond that in features.
Contrast that with the MaP Test, which is voluntary in the toilet industry, which most manufacturers use if those it is voluntary:
* https://map-testing.com/
If there was an ES-equivalent standard for laundry then perhaps Energy Star itself would not be needed at that point.
Free market evangelist people are out of touch with reality.
Maybe the tree huggers at Reddit are spending a lot of time hugging pine trees. Pine sap is hard to get out.
What the administration is preparing for that requires raising defense spending to one trillion is beyond me. Actually it's not.
A cold war with China. Everything they are doing is based around that expectation.
Leaving that aside, the US is hugely more powerful than Denmark, Panama and Canada combined. If could walk over all three right now - no need for increased military expenditure.
Iran has been preparing to fight the US, and will probably have fanatics who will fight on after defeat of the military creating an Iraq like situation - but AFAIK the direction of expenditure is wrong for that as preparing for that would require spending on counter insurgency and boots on the ground. There would also be lots of support from other countries in the region for that.
The ONLY country that is a peer rival to the US is China.
Other nuclear powers are probably able to deter the US, but only China can actually fight it in a conventional war.
They’re cutting the NSF because they’re high on their own supply and misunderstand the causes of US dominance, it’s a poor indicator of their intentions.
Why do you think America is suddenly 'preparing' for something? Hasn't defence spending steadily increased for quite a long time now?
Not as a percentage of GDP. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/usa/uni...
The administration has expressed a desire to destroy several other countries over the last year. Iran, Denmark's autonomous territory Greenland and Canada stand out for being explicitly named, and China for being a career target of important advisors. Iran out of all these is singled out by congressional support and a history of military action in the region. In conclusion, the administration most likely wants to invade Iran.
https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-says-there-will-be-bombi...
A bit of banter about Canada being economically or political subordinate to the US is not even remotely in the same ballpark as expressing a desire to destroy Canada. Even the literal meaning of what was obviously a joke is not remotely in the same ballpark. This is the same kind of thing I've been hearing my entire life; it means no more than the old adage "when America sneezes, Canada catches a cold".
I say this as a left-wing Canadian, btw.
Regarding Iran, the headline of your source already contradicts you, as does the article. Bombing is not invasion, and a threat made to get what you actually want (a "nuclear deal") is not expressing desire to execute the threat (it is in fact explicitly saying that you want something else).
Is this bad? Sure. Is it an unusual level of saber rattling (especially from someone who didn't come across as much of a military interventionist in his first term)? I suppose so. But it is not anything like "an expressed desire to destroy other countries". It is not warmongering.
All the recent headlines about "not ruling out" various military actions are just decades-old MAD policy applied to conventional warfare.
> Not as a percentage of GDP.
Right, so by your own source:
* Spending as a percentage of GDP recently peaked in 2010 (in the middle of Obama's first term);
* Spending as a percentage of GDP recently bottomed out in 2017-2018 (in the middle of Trump's first term);
* If we apply the 2010 percentage to 2022, the US would have already been at 1.25T in spending - while this thread is expressing concern because of approaching the 1T mark. Notwithstanding the import shock, US GDP has been recently growing rather impressively, too - see e.g. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP/ .)
Also, the implication of your phrasing is that an increase as a percentage of GDP is happening or will happen soon, but you left out any evidence for that.
I very much don't like that the US spends this much on the military (about 3x as much as China, next on the leaderboard); but it's not historically out of line, nor does it look like an indication of trouble afoot.
He has stated repeatedly that it is not a joke. I’m not sure what it’ll take to get you to believe him.
> This is the same kind of thing I've been hearing my entire life
Previous Presidents have not repeatedly expressed the desire to make Canada a state.
Ignores Congress (impoundment), ignores SCOTUS (Abrego Garcia), corruptly enriches himself from his position (Meme coin), cuts social programs (numerous), encourages stochastic terrorism (numerous), and expresses sentiments fully divorced from reality or otherwise distracting from heinous and corrupt actions.
No comments yet
EPA Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43911252
Oh no, the government is not doing something… so someone can turn it into a business or start a nonprofit or academia can do something useful.
And government resources can help other more critical projects.
1. The trust of the public. (This is essential for certifications.)
2. The ability to borrow at the lowest interest rate. (This is mainly due to the above.)
That makes spending to organize or coordinate the industry and the public a natural government activity.
Even the empire had Imperial Bureau of Standards.
Poor analogy.
If anything, distrust of government is nearly a core value inherent to being an American, again - regardless of which side you're on. Stonewall, George Floyd Protests, and Jan 6 were all protests against government, and they're all progress compared to the past, when these tensions would have instead started armed conflicts, like the anti-government sentiment that started both the revolutionary war and the civil war.
Not sure why a long running and effective program needs government to borrow money, especially if industry finds the program valuable (enough to fund).
I’m fine with government starting programs like this, but think they should eventually be divested and run as self sufficient organizations and not constantly be a drain on the taxpayer.
Instead of their being one central neutral auditor.
Three things that can all be true:
1. Industry has no incentive to improve per-unit efficiency if it impacts price
2. Government is largely beholden to industry, especially in oligarch America.
3. A government efficiency mandate can be better than nothing.
You are exactly right. Industry can create their own certification scheme with some independent entity, which sets the certification standards. Energy star is not safety relevant, which is the one thing which government arguably should have oversight over.
Because the additional cost is worth it when lives are at stake.
Cost doesn't mean just mean money. Government oversight creates significant friction and there needs to be a very good reason to accept that friction into an industry. Risk to human lives is one of the few things where it is sensible to introduce that friction.
Government are there to prevent friction for its citizens, not for faceless entities.