TinaTinaTina
LightNews LightNews
banner
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
TinaTinaTina
@i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
4.9K followers 520 following 870 posts
Reader, writer, creator. Mom, professional, cat-mom.

Visit my substack: https://coldcutshottakes.substack.com/

Check out my podcast: Gaetz Gone Wild - a dramatic read of the Gaetz Ethics Report with commentary.

All my stuff: https://hy.page/tinan
Posts Replies Media Videos
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Listening to the autism episode of the Daily and am struck by the difference in its approach to the one they did on trans kids. This one is anchored in science, talking to psychologists, and essentially seems positioned to debunk RFKJR's view of it as "an epidemic". 🧵
November 24, 2025 at 5:54 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Is it "Can I meet you?"

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Column | Defuse political tension in your family with one simple question
A common misperception is fueling political arguments. But new research shows it’s possible to correct it, in ourselves and our political foes.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:44 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Do my eyes deceive me or is the crowd for Kirk's memorial larger than any of Trump's inaugurations?
September 21, 2025 at 4:24 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Maybe if #congress has to have active shooter drills we will actually see some action on gun control.

www.semafor.com/article/09/1...
US politicians make additional security changes following Kirk’s death
The attack on the conservative activist is the latest to roil Washington this year.
www.semafor.com
September 11, 2025 at 11:33 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
From wind farms to forced childbirth - the path is clear...
This is really chilling. A law firm, representing anti-wind farms, is demanding that Brown University retract information in research that shows connections between - you guessed it - fossil fuel firms and anti-wind groups. Because of course that’s who’s fanning the flames of opposition (see what I did there?). Brown says it will stand firm but who know
September 5, 2025 at 5:34 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
International Love Triangle...🥰

https://www.rfr.bz/b29a43c

Putin, Modi, and Xi hang out without Trump, even indulging in some hot-n-heavy hand holding for the cameras, and riding together unchaperoned in the backseat of a limo, just like Putin did with Trump just weeks ago. (Is Putin easy? Can anyone get him into the back seat of a car and he puts out? Is there graffiti about him on the bathroom walls in the UN? Does it say Fuck Putin?)
September 5, 2025 at 2:03 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
The WHITE House of DANGER....
we're in a weird Choose Your Own Adventure story but who is turning the pages?
The Epstein scandal continues, now with Ghislaine Maxwell being moved to a lower security prison, extremely untypical for her crime. The better to escape from, my dear? Or Or maybe it’s easier to kill her in, once they get her to say what they need her to say? Who knows? That’s the fun of a criminally-laced administration - everything is possible! It’s a wild Choose-Your-Own-Adventure ride nowadays.
September 4, 2025 at 7:23 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
From a medieval castle to zipline discrimination - I cover it all!

https://www.rfr.bz/bb28e03

#followME #Writer #Subscribe
Lovely to remember that some follies are not evil. A thirteenth-century castle in France is being built by hand. Why? I dunno. But I’m glad someone decided to do this around 25 years ago and now, it’s almost done. What a smack in the face to drywall McMansions. Also in France: Israeli children are denied access to a zipline park. It’s not clear why - the manager told some people it was because of “personal beliefs”
September 4, 2025 at 6:47 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Is RFK Jr really suggesting that we can tell that something's wrong with someone by looking at them? A dangerous path for a man like himself...

https://www.rfr.bz/b43cd3b

Kennedy claimed: “I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation. You can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection.”nnI have to say, this is some bold shit from someone who looks like a decades old baseball mitt, talks like a Speak & Spell, and had a fucking worm in his brain.
September 4, 2025 at 5:10 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Just enjoying the warm water over here....

https://www.rfr.bz/bc9c57d

#followme #writer #news #subscribe
yet one lone dude with lunch is charged with a felony. Think about it. In so many discussions people focus on the specifics of one situation - “but it’s legal for him to take over DC!” - and fail to think about the overall pattern of what’s happening. Losing the forest for the trees. Sure, it’s legal for him to take over DC. And there’s certainly no reason for it to happen elsewhere. It’s like we’re the frogs and the water is boiling, and people are like, Oh yay! A hot tub! People! Wake UP!nn
September 3, 2025 at 7:21 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
I am obsessed with Trump being obsessed with the Nobel Peace Prize. As in he cannot get it. It will absolutely infuriate him if it is withheld and for that reason alone, withhold it!!
It happened! The Baked Alaska Summit with Trump and Putin. Where within minutes Trump would seal the deal. And did he? Er, no. Seems like not much was accomplished, Trump continued to arselick Putin, Putin spoke first at the press conference, which is an apparent no-no - the host always speaks first and sets the tone, and now it’s “up to Zelenskyy to get it done” according to Trump. You know what this means, though? No Peace Prize. Ha ha, says Nelson Muntz.
September 3, 2025 at 4:37 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
INSANE stuff happening in America...

https://www.rfr.bz/bde5e06

#followme #author
Some D-bags in Arkansas have created a community just for whities. This is truly insane shit, and also the houses look like crap. It’s not some luxury enclave, more like a glorified trailer park. The two guys who started it have impeccable resumes, though. “The community’s two architects — a classically trained French horn player who has livestreamed his own sex videos, and a former jazz pianist arrested but not charged for attempted murder in Ecuador
September 3, 2025 at 3:11 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
August recap of what's happened in this world- so much for a slow month, right?
Looks like RFK Jr is on the verge of dismantling preventative healthcare, because we have apple cider vinegar! And soon, weight loss jabs on medicaid. Make it make sense, please. The FBI releases a report that pretty clearly states there was no Biden-era crime wave, like Trump and Fox News are also banging on about. So this should put an end to this idea that cities are out of control, right? Right??nn
September 2, 2025 at 8:30 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Leo says he doesn't feel a day over 32, when really it's that he doesn't feel a day over 26. IYKYK
August 14, 2025 at 8:02 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
I read a piece from 1986 about voter apathy and it got me going... I think our current situation has evolved from this, and we're in a much worse position now. Can we do anything to change it?

tinyurl.com/2tx78h7f

#politics #writing #followme #hottakes
I started July with a nostalgic read of a Playboy article (what? They did have great articles - I used to read them in my college boyfriend’s bathroom!) with Gore Vidal. I had come across a quote of his about the “property class” and had to find it. If it weren’t a prerequisite that you have millions of dollars to run for office, you might have something resembling democracy, which we have never had. The founding fathers were just as terrified of democracy as they were of monarchy–and curiously enough, we’re tending toward monarchy now, rather than toward democracy. As a result, half the people never vote at all, and it’s not because they’re stupid or apathetic. It’s because they think, What’s the point? There’s nothing to vote for. There’s only one political party, the property party, and it represents the owners of the country. It has two wings, the Democratic and the Republican, but it’s basically the same party, paid for by the same people. The candidates are all the same. If there are two parties in the United States, they are the 50 percent of the electorate that refuses to vote–I’m the leader of that party–and the 50 percent that does vote in Presidential elections. Not voting is as much of an act as voting. This was from 1986. (Before I was reading Playboy.) But I remember saying something similar to my mother in the 90s - they’re the same! what difference does it make? And honestly, I still feel this way. What’s the difference between Nancy Pelosi and Matt Gaetz? (besides the obvious, that Pelosi has much better plastic surgery) They’re both making bank out of being in politics, they’re both maintaining the status quo, because that’s what works for them and gets them paid. They have an outer shell of difference, but underneath? The whole system keeps working to keep the system working. That’s the “deep state” that Trump railed against. That’s what people are pissed about. That sense that this system is not at all “for the people,” but instead serves a sel…
August 9, 2025 at 1:59 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
This guy who charges 3/4 of a million dollars for college counseling acting like he cares about leveling the playing field for college admissions.

tinyurl.com/5yuct4cm
“This move could also further entrench advantages for wealthy applicants rather than reduce bias,” especially if colleges feel political pressure to admit only applicants with the highest test scores and grades, said Adam Nguyen, founder of Ivy Link, which provides college admissions advice to families with students as young as fifth grade and charges up to $750,000 for the services. “Equally talented low-income or even mid-income students rarely have access to that level of strategic guidance,” he said. “Any selective admissions process that ignores income, privilege and structural access while targeting race‑based efforts to increase diversity isn’t leveling the playing field. It’s cementing it.” Trump’s Deals With Top Colleges May Give Rich Applicants a Bigger Edge The public release of data on test scores and race could wind up making wealth even more influential in admissions.
August 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
The US govt removed Article I, Sections 9 & 10 related in the U.S. Constitution (parts of Section 8 have been removed, too). Which also pertains to Habeas Corpus and gifts from foreign states and royals/nobility.

Constitution | Congress.gov & annotated section: Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov
Congress.gov
August 6, 2025 at 6:55 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
@nytpitchbot.bsky.social
July 17, 2025 at 12:26 AM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Basically: "I'm a bigot and don't believe transitioning is good but by gum even *I* can see this ban is just plain ol' discrimination!"

Which is basically the basis of ALL the anti-trans rhetoric, wrapped up with a plaintive "But The Children!" "Save The Women!"

#transrights #NYT #NYTsucks
NYT: I’m Not the Person You’d Expect to Oppose a Ban on Transgender Troops
June 30, 2025 at 3:52 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
What's the problem for men and boys? Men and boys.
tinyurl.com/4rz8ersm
We hear about boys falling behind in school, the claim that schools are reinvented in ways that favor girls. But schools are not designed for girls. Schools are made for no one’s shape. They’re designed to rub our edges off, our individuality, make us join the borg. We become members of something bigger than ourselves. Boys are choosing to not fit the shape of school. They are being told they don’t have to, by someone, somewhere. They are given an out, told boys-will-be-boys, a shrug and a sigh. This is not just school, but society overall – you become part of something bigger than you. If you decide not to be part of society, do you get to cry when society moves around you? Like an ocean or river flowing past an obstacle, it doesn’t change the water. The water keeps on moving.
June 28, 2025 at 3:37 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Feels like Wapo is carrying water for the budget bill with this piece - showing that virtually no one but the poorest will pay more. Who are their readers? Not that demographic. And greed is a motivator. Sure, you're not getting 22K more like some, but 3K is still SOMEthing.
tinyurl.com/5csadx8v
How much will you save or lose with Trump’s ‘big’ tax bill?
How will Trump’s tax bill affect your finances? Check out its effects using this calculator.
tinyurl.com
June 26, 2025 at 1:20 AM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
Imagination is the fuel of our creative engines, and we're outsourcing it. What will happen when we lose our ability to imagine?
coldcutshottakes.substack.com/p/artificial...
We are often afraid of what is contained within us. When we tap into our imaginations it can be frightening. “I thought that?” This is why we say we unleash our imaginations, because normally they’re held in check, muzzled like a fearsome dog who is scarpering to get free. We work hard as we grow up to learn to like the muzzle, to heel, to parade around the ring with our tails held high to get our treats. The unleashed dog will never get the treat from our masters, win the prize from the judges. We learn how to fit the shape society wants us to be. We tame that beast and make him serve us, or so we think. But we are starving him. He isn’t tame, just weak from thirst and hunger, failure to thrive. We see the beast as something to be beaten, when really, we should be in communion with him. He isn’t a beast but our wild selves, the spark within that lights us, part of our animating force. We’re duller now with that lack, having traded it for the big IMAX. Other people’s visions – their fears, their dreams – flicker in front of our eyes now. Imagination is what drove humanity—good and bad. It brought possibility, drove creation. Imagination drives us forward. Yet our culture treats imagination as worthless unless it’s monetized.
June 21, 2025 at 12:50 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
i love thunder!
June 19, 2025 at 5:18 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
"Fear is broadcast; Murdoch tells us what to fear. We all share the same anxieties from TV, instead of the individual, unique fears that once lived at the base of our brains. What does this outsourcing of imagination do to us? Not just to our fears, but to our entire beings?"
tinyurl.com/2vh3398f
Artificial Imagination and what we lose. Title of article on graphic of thought bubbles. Coldcuthottakes.substack.com
June 18, 2025 at 2:04 PM
i-sing-of-olaf.bsky.social
My sister and I kept running into Danny Aiello on Fifth Avenue and we couldn't figure out if we recognized him from TV or if he was one of our many uncles.

We also got chatted up by Don Rickles in a bodega down the shore when we were nubile young adults in bikinis.
bolt451.bsky.social Deck the Halls with Bolt451 @bolt451.bsky.social · Jun 13
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie

Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
June 13, 2025 at 6:15 PM