Melissa Chen
@MsMelChen • 334,627 subscribers
VP @strategyrisks | Board + co-founder @IdeasB2 | Board @envprogress | 🇸🇬 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 | ✍️ The Spectator & elsewhere | Email: [email protected]
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This woman, Laura Richards, is the former head of the Homicide Prevention Unit at Scotland Yard and she thinks that every guy who says that Lindsay Clancy would’ve been found guilty had she been a man should just shut up. Because this is apparently a woman-only experience. She runs through every excuse to contextualize Lindsay Clancy’s murderous behavior and then shockingly says: “As the expert on this, I’m telling you that if you ever go to a house and you’re law enforcement, and the only person alive in that house is a man, you question him, you test the evidence. You must never ever ever ever rely on a man’s narrative.” Just more man-hating stuff that tries to insinuate Patrick is the guilty party. How on earth did this person hold such senior positions in the UK’s police force.
Melissa Chen875,448 görüntüleme • 9 gün önce
*** ON WHAT IS CURRENTLY KNOWN AND WHAT IS UNKNOWABLE ABOUT THE NEPAL-TIBETAN LANDSLIDE DISASTER *** There are always wild speculations in the immediate aftermath of any disaster, and in the case of the Nepal–Tibet landslides, those have ranged from secret glacier server farms (!!!) to a burst Chinese dam to geoengineering. As of now, this is just noise as they are unverifiable. What is NOT noise is China’s information control. User-generated footage of the tidal wave of mud and water hitting Gyirong Port, the main China-Nepal crossing, vanished quickly from WeChat and other Chinese platforms. State media has instead focused on rescue operations and leadership visits including Premier Li Qiang's. It has shown little of the devastation or victim accounts. Bear in mind, just as the BBC rightly points out here, that foreign journalists have almost no access to Tibet which China has annexed decades ago. Almost everything that you will read in the Western media comes from official Chinese sources, so read the news coverage with that constraint in mind. China’s confirmed-death count started at 3 and remains far lower than Nepal’s, even though the port was hit directly and video showed crowds fleeing. As of August 30, Nepal reports 734 dead and 2,498 missing, including hundreds of foreigners and roughly 900 hydropower workers, some trapped in tunnels. China reports 16 dead and 546 missing, including 261 foreigners (104 Nepalis, 49 Indians, 33 Latvians, 18 Americans, 15 Britons, and others). That gap, plus the censorship, is why this leaves a sense of deja vu to many people who have witnessed Chinese actions during covid - downplay the scale, tightly manage the narrative, fail to warn neighbors. Nepali officials, including a minister, have said they received no timely cross-border alert from China. What is actually true about Chinese activity in Nepal? Nepal is a sovereign state balancing India and China, calling itself “the yam between two rocks.” It joined the Belt and Road Initiative, takes Chinese infrastructure and hydropower investment, and consistently affirms the One China policy while restricting anti-China activity, especially on Tibet. China’s economic and political weight in Nepal has grown to the point that some now describe it as close to a vassal relationship. There are multiple hydropower projects in the Nepali valleys where so many workers are missing. Further up in the Tibetan region, there is also extensive mining, blasting, and slope work being done. All of this development, in theory, can increase exposure and can disturb slopes and permafrost. But we don't really know if Chinese construction has changed drainage or slope stability in that specific area. The affected corridor is heavily built-up and settled, and yes the same area has flooded before. That is what can be established. Wilder claims remain unproven until independent teams can access the region. The official account on both sides is still climatic and glacial - that a glacier collapsed and caused an ice-rock avalanche, not an engineering failure on the Chinese side. A mixed cause is possible, but until China opens the area, it simply cannot be tested.
Melissa Chen180,925 görüntüleme • 15 gün önce
This is Professor Roland Fryer on TRIGGERnometry discussing the reaction to his paper, particularly its findings on police use of lethal force. He received death threats, required police protection (ironic), and was suspended from the Harvard faculty over a handful of jokes that supposedly created a “hostile work environment.” His research lab was shut down for good measure. The old Twitter before Elon Musk bought it, flagged and suspended accounts simply for posting the paper, branding it as hate speech. They had endless tolerance for Arday’s lies. They went after Fryer for speaking the truth.
Melissa Chen397,113 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Frank Dikötter says that the standard Western story of China’s post-Mao “rise” is an illusion. "So you're saying that Westerners who look at China's numbers and some of the things they see when they visit and are impressed are the Walter Durantys of our time?" "Exactly." Getting to hear a historian such as Dikotter speak about the how China became communist is such a treat. He tells history as though it's a alive and debunks many myths, including the founding myth of the CCP itself. I personally don't fully subscribe to the idea that China is all paper tiger. It's maybe like part paper, part stone. Yes there are real distortions underlying China's success - ghost cities, local-government debt, manipulated GDP figures, and a private sector that still depends on Party connections. But the Party’s long time horizon, ability to suppress dissent and redirect resources at scale, and demonstrated capacity to industrialize and close technological gaps (from EVs to certain dual-use tech and now AI) give it state capacity that liberal democracies often lack. Innovation can occur under authoritarian coordination even when it is inefficient or derivative; the combination of scale, directed investment, and willingness to accept high human and economic costs still produces capabilities that matter for military, industrial, and geopolitical competition. Couple this with Western weaknesses and its remarkable ability to self-own, I really wouldn't underestimate China.
Melissa Chen51,059 görüntüleme • 7 gün önce
It is insane to see this 5th April 1982 interview with Margaret Thatcher from the vantage point of today. At this point, the Argentinians had just invaded and seized the Falklands. You can actually see what they call an "iron will" in her eyes, and hear it in every measured, authoritative word. There's no bluster or misplaced confidence, just a quiet conviction. She was a totally different type of leader unseen in a long time, which Britain sorely needs today. Thatcher’s government staked everything on retaking the islands after Argentina's invasion. Polls showed her deeply unpopular beforehand; victory, thanks to the "Falklands Factor," delivered a landslide in 1983. Defeat almost certainly would have forced her resignation amid national humiliation, collapsing Conservative support and likely ushering in a Labour government amid economic strife and union unrest. More than politics was at stake. Giving up would have meant abandoning British citizens to a right-wing junta’s aggression, a Suez Crisis on steroids for the television age. Images of surrender would have flashed around the world, signaling weakness. It would have shattered the idea that Britain still stood ready to defend its people and its territory. Watch how she explains why fighting was not just necessary, but morally imperative. Listen to the way she deftly handles questions about America, praising their diplomatic efforts while making it crystal clear that this was Britain and only Britain's responsibility to shoulder alone. And when the ITN interviewer asks her at the end if she's prepared to resign if she fails? Trust me.... just watch how and what she answered it with. This type of leadership feels like an extinct species now. It’s exactly the kind of clear-eyed, unflinching European voice the West could use more of today. (Javier Milei has long been an open admirer of Thatcher for precisely these reasons btw)
Melissa Chen276,078 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
The very line that leftist critics are waving around as damning proof of Arday whistleblower Nathan Cofnas’s “racial prejudice” is, funnily enough, a direct quote taken from Harvard University. They brandished that statistic to justify their own affirmative action regime. And while we’re on the subject - even if you successfully prove the messenger is morally questionable, the content and its accuracy should stand or fall on their own merits. Which is to say that if Mussolini himself had called Arday a lying dirtbag, that still wouldn’t make Mussolini wrong in this domain. In Nathan Cofnas's own words:
Melissa Chen143,197 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
At a bar in Atlanta before tomorrow’s big game and the England 🏴 fans are belting out “Ten German Bombers” at the top of their lungs Can’t help but rub it in during the Ecuador vs Mexico game to celebrate the German exit out of historical spite. And of course they brought the inflatable Spitfires along, the absolute mad lads 😂
Melissa Chen284,755 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce
AOC's openness about freezing her eggs at 36 is a bold and intimate attempt to destigmatize a process many women quietly navigate while balancing ambition and the desire for family. But while IVF and fertility technologies can expand options, they are not magic. This sobering 60 Minutes report on egg freezing is an important dose of realism. You cannot fully freeze the biological clock or guarantee that career, marriage, and motherhood will align on demand. Egg quality and quantity decline steadily with age - abnormal embryos rise sharply after the mid-30s -and even with a solid number of eggs banked, success is never assured. Personally, I've never met anyone who regretted having kids young (they're empty nesters by like 40s) but I've met a lot (including me) who regretted NOT having kids young.
Melissa Chen113,652 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Elite schools went woke because they stopped admitting (and rewarding) this female archetype at scale: the bubbly feminine, high agency, super sociable sorority sister who believes she can win with talent and charm and looks. Elle Woods, basically. Instead they filled it with grim, status-seeking activists obsessed with perpetual victim hood and deconstructing everything.
Melissa Chen327,108 görüntüleme • 3 ay önce
This is what it looked like in the stands when Mexico scored that penalty The fans blew the lid off the stadium and waterfalls of beer and popcorn came cascading from above I have to say the Mexican fans in Azteca were brilliant. They have so much heart, and at the end they were so incredibly gracious. Thank you 🇲🇽
Melissa Chen194,600 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce
The Alysa Liu as hero vs. Eileen Gu as anti-hero arc continues to play out. She skated with such lightness and joy, taking the Olympic gold today - the first individual to win gold for the USA 🇺🇸 in this event in 24 years. Just look at her post-performance reaction - pure all-American exuberance bursting out like fireworks on the 4th of July. She's so bubbly and almost cartoonishly enthusiastic, beaming at the crowd as she skates around, unable to conceal her wide grin. Meanwhile, across the slopes today, Eileen Gu faced her own dramatic twist, crashing down the halfpipe after clips of her press conference demeanor went viral. In it, she laughed loudly at a reporter's question before delivering a haughty and defensive response about her record, saying "I'm most decorated female freeskier in history." It's totally fine to highlight her self-evident success but the way that came off, compared to Alysa's warm and approachable on-ice outburst, just reinforced The Tale of Two Athletes. Eileen raked in $6.6 million from the Chinese government to ski for Team China, and her brand endorsements pull in upwards of $20 million in off-ice income. Alysa on the other hand didn't take the China deal, and had to endure being targeted by Chinese spies all because of her father who is a Chinese political refugee. I hope American companies are paying attention: patriotism is a brand in itself, one that deserves to be profitable too. Alysa is genuine and inspirational and her story is also one about grit and grace and sticking to ones' principles. What a great American hero. Congratulations Alysa Liu, American Patriot 🫡
Melissa Chen536,181 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce
This commentator noticed that the Asian community has the lowest voter turnout, but has the highest income per capita. He says “that means they’re thriving economically without the need for political participation.” Yeah this tracks. Asians tend to focus on their own personal economic interests such that it won’t really matter which political party is in office or what policies are passed. It’s a “Heads down and grind” mentality where a system of living is carved out that is not reactive or dependent on the state. The Chinatown / Little Saigon thing though is a caricature. Ethnic enclaves developed thanks to network effects and the need for survival, but it’s not this kumbaya support network he describes. It’s far more cutthroat and hyper competitive, with lots of tiny competing businesses selling the same dumplings two doors down, undercutting each other on price. You might get a leg up from someone with the same surname, who is maybe even from the same small rural province. Other than that, there’s just no such thing as “the Asian community.” Your cousin’s uncle might float you a loan but any other Asian person is just another random customer or competitor and actually you’re more likely to hate each other. Also the whole point of being in Chinatown is to get out of Chinatown! The immigrant pattern is to work hard in the enclave, hoard money, and then bounce to the suburbs the moment you can afford to. The romantic “ecosystem” is just a first-generation holding pattern rather than a permanent parallel society.
Melissa Chen38,756 görüntüleme • 15 gün önce
pov: the sea people have arrived to bring about the end of the age of bronze
Melissa Chen100,384 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
They were about go on stage at the National Mall for the Freedom 250 festivities here in Washington, D.C. But then there was a heat advisory (it’s 38°C) so everything outdoors was canceled. Instead, here’s the next best thing, since I just can’t get enough of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” It’s a love letter to a beautiful part of America, the open road, the freedom to wander, and that deep, undeniable pull back to where you belong. Enjoy this video of Winston Marshall and Joey Davis with the band rehearsing in the trailer. Joey plays for Oliver Anthony who is from West Virginia.
Melissa Chen102,085 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce
Mexican fans cheered for Norway 🇳🇴 against Brazil here in the fan zone. After the final whistle blew, they started rowing in anticipation of the next game where they expect to face the Vikings. (Everyone has been very warm and in good spirits here - no hostilities. Although the English do seem very heavily outnumbered here)
Melissa Chen98,592 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce