Steve Perlstein
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steveperlstein.bsky.social
Steve Perlstein
@steveperlstein.bsky.social
190 followers 400 following 580 posts
Milwaukeean by birth, Kiwi by choice. I used to chef. Now I hang out with my wife, play punk rock guitar, umpire New Zealand baseball, and play with my deaf dog. www.alternativefactsband.com
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Hi everyone. Updating this just a bit. Here's what gets me going:

My band, @alternativefactsnz.bsky.social
Hanging out with my wife and my dog
Punk rock
Guitars
Progressive US politics
Progressive Kiwi politics
Baseball umpiring
Brewers, Bucks, and Packers
All Blacks
Black Caps
Stand up comedy
Reposted by Steve Perlstein
Reposted by Steve Perlstein
this should surprise absolutely no one at all.
But will be said regardless. At volume.
Reposted by Steve Perlstein
It’s book launch day for Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual For Keeping A Democracy, my first book. I hope you’ll read it or listen to it. a.co/d/43dbybC
I don’t even remember how much I pay to subscribe to Charlotte’s Substack, but it’s worth it regardless.
Well, Charlotte, it got very thorough mainstream media coverage in New Zealand. The US came off looking fabulous, as usual.
This is very true, internationally. Also, I long for the day when I make $12 a month on Spotify. (That’s close to 5,000 streams, for those of you keeping score at home. But if I sold 5,000 singles on Bandcamp, I’d get about $4,200.)
“Average musician makes $12 a month on Spotify. The fact that they are not even able to sell a record and it’s taken from them by rich motherfuckers on streaming platforms who get paid royally by record labels,Ticketmaster, merch companies. They’re all fucking getting paid, except for the musician.”
Garbage’s Shirley Manson Speaks Out Against Music Industry Economics: “This Is An Alarm Call”
Just before they kicked off their current run of dates, the ’90s alt-rock greats Garbage announced that it would be their final North American headline tour. When the band played at Denver’s Mission B...
www.stereogum.com
I don’t think it gets enough attention how feckless and pathetic a manager and leader Luxon is. He couldn’t keep a ruler in line.
Reposted by Steve Perlstein
SHORT NOTICE CALL TO ARMS FOR DUNEDIN FOLKS
There’s clearly a type.
Thousands of posts from a private Young Republican Telegram chat reveal a culture of casual racism/antisemitism, rape jokes and celebration of Hitler/Nazism.

Some of the ringleaders are below: We live in a world where 4chan types now occupy positions of real power.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
Figure of speech. I knew I’d win.
And when working for the Star Tribune was a professional goal of mine (long, long ago), its circulation was somewhere around 350,000. Sometimes everything is difficult to wrap my head around.
I'd bet a paycheck that if you ask @rickperlstein.bsky.social if there's plenty of evidence of this sort of stuff across the history of the Young Republicans, the answer would be a resounding yes. None of this stuff ever happens in a vacuum.
EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇
‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat
Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.
www.politico.com
When we moved here we flew from Scotland — 4 legs and over 30 hours. It would have been an easy trip if not for that asshat.
To be fair, I got this case for my pedal board from Temu, and it's fine. I'm sure Winnie got free shipping as well.
Also, in response to Kieran calling out the lie, the minister said the ministry had actually been in touch with said contact.

Clearly now, black is white, up is down, and lies, apparently, are truth.
Tama Potaka accuses Kieran Mcanulty of lying about pregnant women being refused emergency housing. Mcanulty says he provided contact details and the Minister hasn't been in touch. So we definitely have a weaponisation of parliamentary decorum by the regime to hide deceit here #nzqt
I have to say, my education regarding the urgency rules and this government's use of them the past couple of years has been ... disheartening.
You know, with the fire hose of big picture horrors coming at us every day, it's easy to miss the sheer cruelty and inhumanity of all this.
ICE secretly kidnap autistic boy during bathroom break—never notify parents.

Mother reported him missing a week ago—turns out ICE had him detained the whole time.

He was helping sell fruit and asked to go to the restroom—by the time she was done helping a customer he was gone.

Houston, Texas
How can any progressive American not support and endorse this campaign? I'm baffled.
UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.
Yet another reminder that, especially lately, what happens in America is a precursor to what people are going to try to pull off here and elsewhere.
New Zealand doesn’t have a First Amendment — we have Parliamentary sovereignty and NZBORA. Our Parliament banned conversion therapy because it harms people. If Stephen Franks wants US-style “freedom” to abuse LGBTQIA+ kids, he can move there.

Absolutely, this dude utterly sucks!