Steven Farkas

Editor, Reviewer & Interviews @thepunksite, very part-time contributor @punknews, punk/metal, cat whisperer, sometime IT worker. RIP webOS/Palm(it still hurts)

[Steven Farkas @Gen_Xr]

I'm beyond excited to have joined the writing team at @Punknews in addition to my editorial duties @thepunksite. Discovering great new music and being part of two brilliant teams - what's not to like?? Thanks to @johngentile and Bobby G for giving me these opportunities!

[The New World: New ideas. New magazine @TheNewWorldmag]

US Election Special Edition cover going to press. Trump wins… the world loses.

[Tom Baldwin @TomBaldwin66]

The Times splashes on the views of James Dyson who thinks the Budget is really unfair to people like him. That’s a billionaire who backed Brexit then moved his firm to Singapore - and owns more than 30k acres of UK farmland. But you wouldn’t know any of that from this article.

[BrooklynVegan @brooklynvegan]

The best emo & post-hardcore albums of 2024 so far, including @redsun405, @CarlyCosgrovePA, @Oolongli420 & more https://t.co/R2M7uCM3fb

[Steven Farkas @Gen_Xr]

@StuHennigan an excellent yet heartbreaking read!

[Steven Farkas @Gen_Xr]

@mikescollins I couldn't get the sound to work, but I assume he's shouting "Give me back my sleeves"?

[Steven Farkas @Gen_Xr]

@badsandwich You could also have gone with Art's Heart, Dollar's Mine"

[Steven Farkas @Gen_Xr]

Just because its parody doesn't mean it isn't true!!

https://t.co/cdTXA6ZPEO

[The Hard Times @REALpunknews]

Babbling 18-Month-Old Sued By Red Hot Chili Peppers for Plagiarism
https://t.co/8DGPfUUT1K

[Marcus Chown @marcuschown]

Never forget. This man asked people to vote on #Brexit. Without defining what Brexit meant. Without carrying out any projections of consequences. All in an (unsuccessful) attempt to settle an internal Tory party feud. He then knighted all his mates and f***ed off into the sunset.

[Alan Shirley @ralanshirley]

As a NHS doctor who trained as a GP at the same time as you, but spent the 30 years since in general practice not politics, it makes me sad and angry to see the unethical and unforgivable damage your party has done to the NHS over the last 13 years

[ThePunkSite.com @thepunksite]

The Punk Site 2023 Top 40: #16 Spanish Love Songs - No Joy https://t.co/dBev2q6DBV

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

Accusations of sexual misconduct are vanishingly rare among Tory MPs. The allegation against Crispin Blunt is just as unusual as the ones against David Warburton, Imran Ahmad Khan, Andrew Griffiths, Neil Parish, Chris Pincher, Peter Bone...

[Peter Stefanovic @PeterStefanovi2]

I can’t tell you how angry this makes me. Its an absolutely disgraceful attack by the Government on our teachers. Why is it not being reported on UK news shows? If like me you’ve had enough of this boll**** RT this widely

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Peter Stefanovic @PeterStefanovi2]

This week Sunak’s Government quietly admitted post-Brexit checks will increase inflation but says it will be “minor” at 0.2%. In other news the same Government says CPTPP membership - worth just 0.08% to UK GDP is a national triumph & “the biggest trade deal since Brexit”

Never underestimate just how thick this Government thinks we all are

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

In 60’s Tories destroyed our railways with Beeching cuts claiming we couldn’t afford them so that we all had to buy cars and donors were paid to build roads.

In 80’s they ran down our industry and privatised utilities so big business benefited.

In 2010 they used financial crisis to birth austerity which began destruction of roads, NHS and public services.

They then harnessed the disgruntlement to deliver #Brexit to destroy absolutely everything.

[Howard Beckett @HowardRBeckett]

• Tories announce 5,000 new NHS Beds. They shut 22,000.

• Tories announce 19 new NHS Diagnostic Centres. They shut 140 Walk In Centres.

• Tories announce 15 yr NHS staffing plan. They are responsible for 100,000 + unfilled NHS jobs.

Support the doctors. It’s our fight.

[The Menzingers @themenzingers]

Big day ‘round these parts! We’re so pleased to announce that our seventh album, Some Of It Was True, will be released digitally on Oct. 13 and physically on Jan. 26th on @epitaphrecords.

https://t.co/TS9e22h6kg