Yu-Ming Liou
@yumingliou.bsky.social
Unfrozen caveman political economist. In my day, we didn't have fancy tools like causal identification, but we knew how to ask: “cui bono?"
Former political scientist. Now I do research for an internet thing. The good one, though.
Washington, DC
Former political scientist. Now I do research for an internet thing. The good one, though.
Washington, DC
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
Why is the West Virginia National Guard in DC?
November 26, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Why is the West Virginia National Guard in DC?
From my perspective as 1) a working human subjects researcher 2) the child of civil servants 3) the spouse of an attorney 4) the brother of a physician:
These professions really seem to ALL have MUCH clearer professional ethical rules than journalism.
These professions really seem to ALL have MUCH clearer professional ethical rules than journalism.
“…we know (from the released emails) that [Thomas Jr.] had potentially incriminating information about [Trump and] Jeffrey Epstein; we don’t know whether he sat on it, gave it to his editors or what. The Times should be a lot more forthcoming about this than they have been.“
Three lessons in unethical media behavior
Plus: Some moments that made me proud to be a journalist
margaretsullivan.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:43 PM
From my perspective as 1) a working human subjects researcher 2) the child of civil servants 3) the spouse of an attorney 4) the brother of a physician:
These professions really seem to ALL have MUCH clearer professional ethical rules than journalism.
These professions really seem to ALL have MUCH clearer professional ethical rules than journalism.
A propos the Nuzzi / RFK Jr. debacle:
I have a proposal for Woke 2.
It is as a general rule good to avoid discussing other people’s appearance. However, if someone wants to make “being hot” their whole personality, we can in fact ask the obvious question.
I have a proposal for Woke 2.
It is as a general rule good to avoid discussing other people’s appearance. However, if someone wants to make “being hot” their whole personality, we can in fact ask the obvious question.
November 26, 2025 at 12:25 PM
A propos the Nuzzi / RFK Jr. debacle:
I have a proposal for Woke 2.
It is as a general rule good to avoid discussing other people’s appearance. However, if someone wants to make “being hot” their whole personality, we can in fact ask the obvious question.
I have a proposal for Woke 2.
It is as a general rule good to avoid discussing other people’s appearance. However, if someone wants to make “being hot” their whole personality, we can in fact ask the obvious question.
People will say anything at all.
I guess he just really enjoys sweetened cream cheese?
I guess he just really enjoys sweetened cream cheese?
I get a lot of hate for this view and in turn I'd only ask if you've ever had a pie as good as a typical cheesecake. The answer is no, you have not. Cheesecake invalidates the whole pie category. Hell, regular cake barely survives the cheesecake onslaught on the strength of carrot cake alone.
The dirty secret of pies is that they have the lowest ceiling potential of all sweets. Your best pie is merely fine. Your median pie is bad.
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 PM
People will say anything at all.
I guess he just really enjoys sweetened cream cheese?
I guess he just really enjoys sweetened cream cheese?
Where I’ve landed with this is that most Americans are suburbanites and if you live that way (driving everywhere in a climate-controlled car) wearing winter clothes and clearing snow seem like a big inconvenience somehow?
By the way I think the number one thing that the internet underrates in housing choice is that people (insanely, in my view) seem to love hot weather
November 25, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Where I’ve landed with this is that most Americans are suburbanites and if you live that way (driving everywhere in a climate-controlled car) wearing winter clothes and clearing snow seem like a big inconvenience somehow?
It’s kind of hard to think of a worse application for LLM-content generation than … recipes
This is so funny because recipes can literally already be copied and reposted with no attribution or copyright. All AI does here is add statistical noise and make the stolen content useless. AI can’t even steal content without fucking it up.
NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 4:45 PM
It’s kind of hard to think of a worse application for LLM-content generation than … recipes
What the fuck does “40 yards of acceptable debate” mean? Is this… supposed to be a football metaphor?
Because actually that’s a pretty good metaphor for brain dead centrism in action: both teams spend all their time between the 30s, never accomplishing anything… and somehow Iowa is always involved.
Because actually that’s a pretty good metaphor for brain dead centrism in action: both teams spend all their time between the 30s, never accomplishing anything… and somehow Iowa is always involved.
"elevate charismatic figures such as Alan Dershowitz"
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November 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
What the fuck does “40 yards of acceptable debate” mean? Is this… supposed to be a football metaphor?
Because actually that’s a pretty good metaphor for brain dead centrism in action: both teams spend all their time between the 30s, never accomplishing anything… and somehow Iowa is always involved.
Because actually that’s a pretty good metaphor for brain dead centrism in action: both teams spend all their time between the 30s, never accomplishing anything… and somehow Iowa is always involved.
Ok I’m generally pro-Waymo (*specifically Waymo*) at least compared to human-operated cars in cities, but wtf this is a disaster.
incidentally, this is precisely what everybody said would happen with robotaxis, huge numbers of empty vehicles clogging up streets.
Waymo privatized another public street:
Chanel approaching 4th, San Francisco
Possibly queued for a Billie Eilish show at Chase Center ~half mile away.
The light rail train on 4th seen passing in front of this roboherd has more passenger capacity than all of them combined.
OP: .tiktok.renaspam18
Chanel approaching 4th, San Francisco
Possibly queued for a Billie Eilish show at Chase Center ~half mile away.
The light rail train on 4th seen passing in front of this roboherd has more passenger capacity than all of them combined.
OP: .tiktok.renaspam18
November 24, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Ok I’m generally pro-Waymo (*specifically Waymo*) at least compared to human-operated cars in cities, but wtf this is a disaster.
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
There's no possible good reason but I'm wondering what the bad reason is for so many college kids thinking that basic rules about human interaction just do not apply to Mormons
November 24, 2025 at 9:50 PM
There's no possible good reason but I'm wondering what the bad reason is for so many college kids thinking that basic rules about human interaction just do not apply to Mormons
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
We really do have two different kinds of law now: District Court law (aka the law), and Supreme Court "law" (aka the U.S. House of Lords upholding Trump's personalist regime)
I don’t know what the Supreme Court will do, but I am confident that at the District Court level it is still the case that the Pentagon cannot recall a sitting US Senator to active duty in order to court martial him for something he said. Article 1, Section 6, among other constitutional provisions.
November 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
We really do have two different kinds of law now: District Court law (aka the law), and Supreme Court "law" (aka the U.S. House of Lords upholding Trump's personalist regime)
We’re the metropole. They’re the periphery supplying raw materials (actors with plausible American accents).
Aluminum with an extraneous i? Read the Treaty of Paris.
All those unnecessary u’s in color and flavor etc? We won the war.
A spelling of fetus so heinous it implies the baby is a monster? Should’ve prevailed at the Siege of Yorktown if you want to behave like that.
All those unnecessary u’s in color and flavor etc? We won the war.
A spelling of fetus so heinous it implies the baby is a monster? Should’ve prevailed at the Siege of Yorktown if you want to behave like that.
November 24, 2025 at 7:07 PM
We’re the metropole. They’re the periphery supplying raw materials (actors with plausible American accents).
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
An ICE agent was caught removing a sign marking an ICE kidnapping in DC last week! Do we think he did it out of anger, embarrassment, or most appropriately shame? If you think what you’re doing is right, why are you trying to hide the evidence? 👀
November 24, 2025 at 2:49 PM
An ICE agent was caught removing a sign marking an ICE kidnapping in DC last week! Do we think he did it out of anger, embarrassment, or most appropriately shame? If you think what you’re doing is right, why are you trying to hide the evidence? 👀
Some of us just aren’t Anglos and thus have memories of holiday food that is objectively good.
The Only Children of White Collar Professional Parents In The 1990s website is uniquely badly-positioned to have good memories or holiday food
November 24, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Some of us just aren’t Anglos and thus have memories of holiday food that is objectively good.
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
once a Green (US) always a Green (US)
“‘We are in this magical, unique time,’ Sinema said of Trump’s health department, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
Kyrsten Sinema Is Ready for Her MAHA Turn
In a new interview, the one-time Democrat says the movement for psychedelic medicine should capitalize on the Trump administration.
www.politico.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:00 PM
once a Green (US) always a Green (US)
Ok goddamnit everyone has their own opinion, but:
1. I know how to cook, including roasting whole chickens, ducks, geese, and other poultry
2. I have done my best to make the best turkey possible and have achieved objectively good results (juicy, relatively flavorful).
3. It’s still turkey.
1. I know how to cook, including roasting whole chickens, ducks, geese, and other poultry
2. I have done my best to make the best turkey possible and have achieved objectively good results (juicy, relatively flavorful).
3. It’s still turkey.
the “thanksgiving food is bad” discourse raises its ugly head every year, but the truth remains that thanksgiving food can be amazing as long as you know how to cook. the problem is we’re throwing a few million sunday drivers directly into a grand prix
I think this is unfair to turkey. turkey is good but hard to cook well because it is so damn big. turkey *parts* are great but lack the esthetic appeal of a centerpiece bird.
November 24, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Ok goddamnit everyone has their own opinion, but:
1. I know how to cook, including roasting whole chickens, ducks, geese, and other poultry
2. I have done my best to make the best turkey possible and have achieved objectively good results (juicy, relatively flavorful).
3. It’s still turkey.
1. I know how to cook, including roasting whole chickens, ducks, geese, and other poultry
2. I have done my best to make the best turkey possible and have achieved objectively good results (juicy, relatively flavorful).
3. It’s still turkey.
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
One fascinating and yet expected thing is that none of the big foreign accounts pretending to be American are left of center, or even anti-Trump. Not a single one. Says something about the economics and geopolitics of political grifting
If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?
November 23, 2025 at 11:08 PM
One fascinating and yet expected thing is that none of the big foreign accounts pretending to be American are left of center, or even anti-Trump. Not a single one. Says something about the economics and geopolitics of political grifting
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
unfortunately it won’t be “woke” if it is “aggressively pro science and medicine.” because such sentiments run smack dab into armies of educated people with paens to “alternative ways of knowing” and racist beliefs that non-white people don’t appreciate science and medicine
I'm all for woke 2 as long as we agree woo-woo is out, I want aggressively pro-science and medicine thanks
November 23, 2025 at 3:30 AM
unfortunately it won’t be “woke” if it is “aggressively pro science and medicine.” because such sentiments run smack dab into armies of educated people with paens to “alternative ways of knowing” and racist beliefs that non-white people don’t appreciate science and medicine
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
Are you fucking kidding me it’s like we are living in a cartoon
November 21, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Are you fucking kidding me it’s like we are living in a cartoon
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
* LEAVITT: HENRY II DOES NOT WANT TO EXECUTE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
November 20, 2025 at 6:50 PM
* LEAVITT: HENRY II DOES NOT WANT TO EXECUTE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
Great discussion that has been going on for serval days now up and down this thread and in the quotes (up and down). Metrics matter, and some of our main metrics in the housing discourse simply aren't responsive to the issues: Standard affordability metrics suffer from massive collider bias.
> What the “objective evidence” shows is that the share of income dedicated to housing is higher than before
???
No, it does not. www.bls.gov/news.release...
???
No, it does not. www.bls.gov/news.release...
November 20, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Great discussion that has been going on for serval days now up and down this thread and in the quotes (up and down). Metrics matter, and some of our main metrics in the housing discourse simply aren't responsive to the issues: Standard affordability metrics suffer from massive collider bias.
Ethnonationalist state capitalist regime that hates queer people is conservative?
Nooooooo
Nooooooo
china discourse rules over there because everybody for and against them thinks they’re communist and not the awful conservative regime they are
November 20, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Ethnonationalist state capitalist regime that hates queer people is conservative?
Nooooooo
Nooooooo
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
There is one and only position that makes any sense if you really take it seriously: say openly and unapologetically that he must be removed from office. Not just call on people to condemn it, not just fret about norms. He is literally trying to kill you. Act like it.
November 20, 2025 at 6:17 PM
There is one and only position that makes any sense if you really take it seriously: say openly and unapologetically that he must be removed from office. Not just call on people to condemn it, not just fret about norms. He is literally trying to kill you. Act like it.
Using RCP is the analysis version of ordering delivery surf and turf from Outback Steakhouse.
Nobody is allowed to get mad at me for using RCP, it's what is convenient on the Terminal, go make your own chart if you care to pls!
November 20, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Using RCP is the analysis version of ordering delivery surf and turf from Outback Steakhouse.
Reposted by Yu-Ming Liou
This is a direct result of Pelosi and McConnell not removing Trump from office on January 6th.
There was no downside to having Pence be POTUS for a few weeks.
There was no downside to having Pence be POTUS for a few weeks.
November 20, 2025 at 5:26 PM
This is a direct result of Pelosi and McConnell not removing Trump from office on January 6th.
There was no downside to having Pence be POTUS for a few weeks.
There was no downside to having Pence be POTUS for a few weeks.
