Pun Salad

That Critter, Chris Pappas, is running for the US Senate. And my best guess is that his campaign advisors are telling him he has to pose as a "fighting fighter who fights" and stir up populist resentment. So we get:

Your cheap demagoguery might work to get you into the Senate! Congratulations, I guess.

— Paul Sand (@punsalad) December 8, 2025

I could quibble: that "2,900" number cited by "More Perfect Union" is a worldwide figure. A recent WSJ article breaks it down more accurately: "America Has 1,135 Billionaires. Here’s What We Know About Them." (WSJ gifted link)

Fun fact: that article puts the total net worth of American billionaires at "about $5.7 trillion."

Further fun fact: Uncle Stupid spent $7.01 trillion in FY2025.

So: Even if Chris managed to expropriate US billionaires' entire net worth, it wouldn't even fund federal government for a single year. And after that, it would be gone.

And of course, that's fantasy economics. Any effort to "legally" grab that wealth would quickly destroy that wealth. For example, Warren Buffett owns about $149 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock. If he had to dump that in order to pay his Pappas-decreed tax bill, what would that do to the share price? And what would it do to the company itself?

Multiply that by every one of those billionaires, selling off stock, real estate, artworks, … Imagine how that might affect your IRA, your 401(k), your home value, …

But I mainly object to Pappas's vague implication to the know-nothings that he's trying to get to vote for him next year: You are poor because they are rich. That's actually a dangerous message to send to some people, as we've seen of late.

Also of note:

• He's got 'em on the list / And they'll none of 'em be missed. Andrew C. McCarthy passes along the latest Report: Pete Hegseth Gave Order to Kill Boat Operators Because They Were on a Target List. (NR gifted link)

  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Navy commander of the September 2 missile strikes against a suspected drug boat to kill everyone on board because all eleven of them were on a list of approved military targets, NBC News has reported.

  The report is based on three anonymous sources — “two U.S. officials” and “one person familiar with the congressional briefings” that were provided last week by the commander, Admiral Frank M. Bradley. If the report is accurate, it lends more credence to the original (and much criticized) Washington Post report, which asserted — also according to anonymous sources — that the gist of Hegseth’s order was “to kill everybody” on board.

  Hey, it only took them a couple weeks to come up with this. Imagine Secretary-of-War Pete slapping his forehead over the weekend, shouting: "Oh, right, I forgot! The list! They were on the list!"

  Andrew notes there is (indeed) nothing new about kill-em-all orders over the past few administrations. But there's a "but":

  But here is the difference: The al-Qaeda-related drone strikes by Obama, as well as by Presidents George W. Bush, Trump, and Biden, were all pursuant to the post-9/11 congressional authorization of the use of military force (AUMF), which went into effect with overwhelming bipartisan approval a week after al-Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans in our homeland, destroying the World Trade Center and striking the Pentagon. That is why there was not more scandal attached to the use of lethal force away from the battlefield — or, as I outlined in the piece on Obama’s drone strikes, to the killing of hundreds of civilians and to the 2011 drone strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki (a dual American and Yemeni citizen) along with several of his companions in Yemen.

  I think it's OK to fill in the "committed war crimes" spot on your impeachment bingo card.

• Probably not an impeachable offense. But, as Eric Boehm relates, Trump's Tariffs Were Supposed To Cut the Trade Deficit and Boost U.S. Manufacturing. They're Not Working.

  How should we assess whether President Donald Trump's tariffs have been effective?

  It's an important question—yet frustratingly difficult to answer. Trump has outlined overlapping, confusing, and sometimes competing goals for the tariffs.

  He's celebrated them as a source of government revenue, for example, but also claimed they are meant as a negotiating tactic. They can't be both. Tariffs used for negotiation are meant to be removed (once negotiations are complete), rendering them useless for long-term revenue. For Trump, tariffs are a solution to every problem, and the trade war is more about the vibes than the economics.

  But, as Eric shows, to the extent administration spokesmodels did provide goals for the tariffs to accomplish, they have failed.

• Not so fast, homeowners. James Freeman puts an asterisk on his headline: California Allowed Someone to Rebuild a Home* (WSJ gifted link). Quoting a news report about 915 Kagawa Street:

  It is the first rebuilt home in the Palisades to receive a certificate of occupancy, according to the mayor’s office, since the deadly fire there ravaged the area nearly a year ago while destroying 6,837 structures.

  I've provided the Google Maps link; the "street view" (from September) shows the house under construction. With no next door neighbors. And no next doors, for that matter.

  But why the asterisk? Nobody's actually moving into the house. James reports it's owned by a developer who plans to use it as a show house.

  James goes on to describe further dysfunction as only California government can provide:

  Nearly a decade ago, Los Angeles County voters overwhelmingly approved Measure M, a half-cent sales tax to fund projects focused on public transportation, street and sidewalk repair, and traffic reduction. The idealistic vote gave park-starved and transit-hungry Angelenos a lot to look forward to, including a $365 million plan for an 8-mile bike path along the Los Angeles River, which would close a crucial gap between existing paths lining LA’s concrete channelized waterway. The expected opening date: 2025.

  But, as the year nears a close, the bike path still isn’t open. In fact, construction hasn’t even started, and the environmental review process is still in the early stages. In the meantime, rising construction costs and other factors have increased the total project cost to approximately $1 billion.

  Bottom line: "One can ask how it’s even possible to spend $1 billion on a bike path, but remember it’s still not clear they’re going to get their bike path."

• Asked and answered. Allysia Finley in the WSJ: Why Is Autism Exploding? Welfare Fraud Is One Reason. (WSJ gifted link)

  Diagnosis rates of autism among children have more than tripled over the past 15 years. One reason, which Minnesota’s welfare scandal lays bare with shocking details, is Medicaid fraud and abuse.

  Medicaid pays healthcare providers big bucks to diagnose and treat children with autism—sometimes tens of thousands of dollars a month for a single child. Yet states rarely verify that kids who are diagnosed actually meet the medical criteria for the disorder or that they get appropriate treatment from qualified specialists.

  The result: Children covered by Medicaid or the government-run Children’s Health Insurance Program are 2.5 times as likely as those with private coverage to be diagnosed with autism. Many lower-income kids are labeled autistic merely because they have behavioral or developmental problems.

  Allysia's explanation is a lot more credible than RFKJr's "It wuz the vaccines" theory.

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