If you were already paying attention and being honest with yourself, none of this should surprise you. Still, it is sad.
Princeton Concludes What Kind of Government America Really Has, and It’s Not a Democracy
By Tom McKay
“As Gilens and Page write, “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” In other words, their statistics say your opinion literally does not matter.”
Carbon Dioxide Levels Just Hit Their Highest Point In 800,000 Years
By Kiley Kroh
“And this uncharted territory is something humans will have to navigate for quite some time because once its emitted, carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere. In fact, Andrew Freedman explains, “a single molecule of carbon dioxide can remain aloft for hundreds of years, which means that the effects of today’s industrial activities will be felt for the next several centuries, if not thousands of years.””
Marmalade 
“If we had a truly independent and adversarial press in my country, this would be a big news story, but they still haven’t found that plane, so … whaddayagonnado right?”
The Princeton democracy study is getting some mainstream media attention. Someone pointed out that the BBC has reported on it:
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
I’m not sure if the US MSM is reporting on it or ignoring it, though.
The lack of democracy study relates to two previous posts of mine about how the elite, especially the conservative elite, are disconnected from most Americans:
https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/political-elites-disconnected-from-general-public/
https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/wirthlin-effect-symbolic-conservatism/
Most Americans, opposite of the elite, are rather liberal and progressive:
https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/us-demographics-increasing-progressivism/