the weird thing is that I’ve met a lot of famous politicians/actors & I’ve never found myself particularly starstruck…and yet this would be me if I met literally any member of the Denver Nuggets roster

I’m away, off social & trying to avoid work matters. But I saw this end-of-the-year email from The @levernews.com team & I wanted to share because I’m genuinely floored by this subscriber growth.

I watched a basketball game last night and think I mighta glimpsed the face of god (or at least a god). It prompted some thoughts about life purpose and reminded me that the bread-and-circuses view of sports is totally wrong. sirota.substack.com/p/sports-are...

A week ago, I decided to look at my LinkedIn account for the first time in 10 years. Today LinkedIn sent me this, which tells me it remains as big a toxic garbage fire as all the other platforms.

Been off social because I’m utterly sick of the politics garbage fire & feel more burned out than at anytime in my life. Have logged in only to check Denver Nuggets news. Now whenever I login, the social algorithms are only serving me NBA content, rather than the politics garbage fire. It’s great.

In signs for those waiting on lift lines, the ski monopoly today effectively bragged about how much it’s deciding to price gouge everyone as compared to what it charged in the 1960s. $4 in 1961 is $43 in today’s money, or about 25% of the price of the same lift ticket today.

This is an example of how corporate media has too often used its soft power as the tone policeman & arbiter of the discourse to aid and abet the Epstein cover-up. Sometimes it’s been aiding via omission/lack of coverage, other times it’s been scoffing/eye-rolling like this.

If you're rich, you get to help your fellow elites create problems while you're in power - and then you get to be valorized by media after you leave office when you conveniently claim you want to fix those problems you created, but now you have no power to do so.

I don’t think Dem politicians should take advice from online marketers like Matt Yglesias, who have no experience in campaigns/elections. But if they are gonna interact with the drivel produced by Matty’s clickbait content farm, this lawmaker shows how they should do it 👇

This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...

perfect

If you're rich, you get to help your fellow elites create problems while you're in power - and then you get to be valorized by media after you leave office when you conveniently claim you want to fix those problems you created, but now you have no power to do so.

NEW: Romney pushed tax cuts for his fellow moguls, vilified the bottom 47% as tax scofflaws & fortified a rigged system. He now published a NYT oped calling for tax hikes, but offers no apology for his record. Why do the powerful only change after they have no power to fix crises they created?

🎧LEVER TIME: How our culture & economy deliberately trap millions in jobs that focus on greed, self-enrichment & attention rather than on solving society's big problems. Fascinating discussion with historian Rutger Bregman about "moral ambition."

It’s important to remember that fossil fuel proponents aren’t just creating a climate crisis threatening the livable atmosphere, they’re also pushing a more expensive form of energy than what is available with renewables. www.scientificamerican.com/article/wind...

This was one of the most oft-quoted jokes in our film. It was supposed to be a cautionary tale. It most definitely was not supposed to be a guidebook for a Matt Yglesias screed published and boosted by the New York Times.

Less than 24 hours after the actual journalists at the NY Times published a story about Trump dismantling the federal climate agency, the NY Times opinion page decided it was time to blast out a Matt Ygelsias rant demanding liberals show more fealty to the fossil fuel industry.

“Now is not the time” has been the mantra of the Democratic Party elite for literally the entire time I’ve been alive - and the prominence of that mantra has coincided with Dems destroying their New Deal coalition, losing power, and handing the government over to MAGA

Less than 24 hours after Trump announced he’s dismantling the nation’s climate science agency, the New York Times opinion page this morning blasted out this Matt Yglesias screed to millions of its liberal readers. That’s one hell of an editorial choice.

🚨NEWS: There has been a big uptick in investors shorting AI companies - using the kind of credit default swaps that proliferated in the lead up to the Big Short and the financial crisis.

let’s all take a moment to appreciate the dictionary people immediately dunking on Time Magazine and all the other corporate media outlets that constantly valorize the tech oligarchs  these were just a few days apart…*chef kiss*

I was 10 when Stand By Me came out - it's hard to describe to those who weren't around back then what a phenomenon it felt like. I recently rewatched it & it holds up so well. Same for so many others - Princess Bride, Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men. RIP Rob Reiner - a master.

Amid the crushing of labor as a political force over the last 30 years, antitrust/anti-oligarchy is the only new movement thats made real policy change threatening the power of big money. This is likely why billionaires, corporations, liberals, neoliberals, elite Dems & country club Repubs hate it.

Reminder: Billionaires pay millionaires to convince thousandaires to believe society’s problems are caused by hundredaires — not by billionaires

I hadn't logged on or touched my LinkedIn page in 10+ years, and wasn't even sure it was still a website anymore. But someone told me it's a better social media experience than a lot of the other hellsites. So I'm over there now - if you're there, you can find me here: www.linkedin.com/in/dsirota/

🎧LEVER TIME: How Wall Street is quietly shorting its own AI investments as chips are depreciating faster than they can come online. At risk is everyone's 401k(s), pensions, savings - and the entire economy. Search "Lever Time" in your podcast app. Guests include @edzitron.com & Sruthi Pinnamaneni.

🚨SCOOP: Google gave lawmakers gifts up to $2,000 to attend a secret perk-filled summit touting AI & data centers as lawmakers consider AI dereg & data center subsidies, according to documents reviewed by @levernews.com. Lawmakers got hotel rooms costing up to $500 per night & a Wrigley Field party.

Chronological headlines from David Brooks, 2020-2025

Chronological headlines from David Brooks, 2020-2025

I've aged 15 years in the 5 years since launching @levernews.com from scratch. It's been a tough slog, but every now & then I step back & am blown away by our team's original reporting that breaks huge stories you can't find anywhere else. Look at our front page right now. Amazing.

🚨NEWS: America's biggest meat processors have allegedly used a secretive data company to collude to hike food prices & suppress wages, according to lawsuit documents reviewed by @levernews.com. Ground beef prices have increased by over 400% as meat-industry wages have stagnated.

yeah....i'm thinking i'm lever time

Governors, mayors, elected utility regulators and candidates running for those offices: Make a simple pledge to block residential electricity rate hikes that finance cheap power for Big Tech companies’ data centers. Steal this idea — and campaign on it.

🎧LEVER TIME: How Wall Street is quietly shorting its own AI investments as chips are depreciating faster than they can come online. At risk is everyone's 401k(s), pensions, savings - and the entire economy. Search "Lever Time" in your podcast app. Guests include @edzitron.com & Sruthi Pinnamaneni.

🚨SCOOP: One of Trump's reported business partners asked Jeffrey Epstein to put him in touch with Elon Musk, according to leaked emails reviewed by @The Lever. Epstein’s schedules included a 2014 note stating “Reminder: Elon Musk to island Dec. 6 (is this still happening?)”

🚨SCOOP: One of Trump's reported business partners asked Jeffrey Epstein to put him in touch with Elon Musk, according to leaked emails reviewed by @The Lever. Epstein’s schedules included a 2014 note stating “Reminder: Elon Musk to island Dec. 6 (is this still happening?)”

Dems are sounding the alarm about ACA premium increases without mentioning something: State insurance regulators - often appointed by Dems! - have the power to reject the increases but they are approving them with no resistance & basically nobody is challenging those decisions. It's maddening.

🚨YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: Colorado AG @philweiser.bsky.social is pressing to use state law to redefine corporate powers and repeal Citizens United in Colorado — a replica of the plan being pushed in Montana. Weiser is running for governor. Here’s his oped with Rep. @javiermabrey.bsky.social.

YOU SIMPLY CANNOT MAKE THIS STUFF UP: Sam Alito is complaining that the Citizens United ruling that he helped craft is being "unfairly maligned" and that it actually "leveled the playing field" in American politics. www.supremecourt.gov/oral_argumen...

I'm sorry you didn't like Don't Look Up. I actually liked it, I'm proud that it was nominated for an Oscar, I'm proud to have won the WGA award for it, and am thrilled that it was seen by hundreds of millions of people across the world.

It's funny to me that people think the way to show that they are smart is to log onto the internet and just say others are dumb without ever mustering the most minimal cognitive ability to engage with their arguments.

🚨NEW: Fresh off paying fines in a kickback prosecution, dialysis giant Davita - previously nailed in a huge Medicare fraud case - just used Citizens United to dump a $50,000 corporate donation into Colorado's gubernatorial race. Now, there's a state push to ban that kind of spending.

🚨YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: Colorado AG @philweiser.bsky.social is pressing to use state law to redefine corporate powers and repeal Citizens United in Colorado — a replica of the plan being pushed in Montana. Weiser is running for governor. Here’s his oped with Rep. @javiermabrey.bsky.social.

life moves pretty fast

There’s this huge media industry employing lotsa Very Smart People™ whose elaborate hot takes purport to explain the allegedly complex reasons for society’s crises, when in fact those crises are all the result of something very simple: a bunch of oligarchs got together & bought literally everything.

The Powell Memo that created the master plan was written in 1971. LeverNews.com/book

🚨BREAKING: Trump is waiving remaining fines against Southwest for its holiday meltdown — and he’s shut down the government suit against the airline for “chronically delayed flights.” The announcement came from the Transportation Dept, now run by former airline lobbyist Sean Duffy.

this newspaper is owned by a guy whose net worth is a quarter-trillion dollars and whose conglomerate owns a grocery chain that profits off high prices

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is cheering on Trump using his pardon power to end a high-profile corruption prosecution. Ladies and gentlemen...The Democratic leadership! sirota.substack.com/p/endemic-co...