Public opinion has “near-zero” impact on U.S. law.

Here's the bottom line of a Princeton study, "Does the Government Represent the People?":

Gilens & Page found that the number of Americans for or against any idea has no impact on the likelihood that Congress will make it law.
“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
One thing that does have an influence? Money. While the opinions of the bottom 90% of income earners in America have a “statistically non-significant impact,” Economic elites, business interests, and people who can afford lobbyists still carry major influence.
The study found that nearly every issue we face as a nation is caught in the grip of corruption. Industries given special attention are those who provide the most funding to politicians: Energy, Telecommunications, Pharmaceuticals, Defense, Agribusiness and Finance.

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Bernie Sanders’ House Parties

Earlier this week, I attended an organizational meeting for those seeking to do volunteer work for the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders. The meeting was held at the office of the Communications Workers of America in west St. Louis County (there were 8 other simultaneous meetings in St. Louis along, and thousands of these meetings nationwide. As you can see, more than 100 people showed up to volunteer at my location. Sanders spoke via video to all of those gathered together tonight.  There are reports that 100,000 people attended Sanders' House Parties across the U.S. this week. Anyone else interested in working for Sanders' campaign can do so by visiting his website. 11754891_10206251197392464_896331055585339618_o 11792007_10206251197232460_1261169718572297136_o

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How to stay classy after a breakup

Good article by Seth Borkowski. Points to the frailty of all relationships.

However, watching “Annie Hall” after my relationship ended was unexpectedly different because I felt as if I had grown with Alvy. I felt comfortable with my understanding of the madness and the irresistibly addictive nature of relationships. With that understanding, I discovered the closure I had been searching for. Of course, it wasn’t entirely satisfying.

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About your surgeon. Propublica offers a database to compare excellence

This article, "Making the Cut," could affect your life or the life of someone you know. The article offers its database so you can compare the complication rates of surgeons regarding common elective surgeries. "About 63,000 Medicare patients suffered serious harm, and 3,405 died after going in for procedures widely seen as straightforward and low risk. Taxpayers paid hospitals $645 million for the readmissions alone." "A small share of doctors, 11 percent, accounted for about 25 percent of the complications. Hundreds of surgeons across the country had rates double and triple the national average. Every day, surgeons with the highest complication rates in our analysis are performing operations in hospitals nationwide. Subpar performers work even at academic medical centers considered among the nation’s best. A surgeon with one of the nation’s highest complication rates for prostate removals in our analysis operates at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital, a national powerhouse known for its research on patient safety. He alone had more complications than all 10 of his colleagues combined — though they performed nine times as many of the same procedures."

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