Hasta La Gadget!

Middlebrow is a recap of the week in entertainment, celebrity and television news that provides a comprehensive look at the state of pop culture. From the rock bottom to highfalutin, Middlebrow is your accessible guidebook to the world of entertainment. Sign up to receive it in your inbox here.

On Monday, Taylor Swift wrote an op-ed about the music industry that read like a delusional fairy tale in which music and fans fall in love via “Arrows Through The Heart.” Once you get past the confusion over why there’s even a Taylor Swift op-ed in the first place, there’s a lot of problematic stuff to mull over, like the idea that pure hard work is ever enough to sell an album or that price points should be determined based on a metric of total amount of “heart and soul.” The unfortunate reality is that the measure of success in music has long since been shifted to rob anyone except mega-stars of a lucrative career, and even they are struggling. With mediums like Spotify and Pandora failing to turn a profit, and more artists turning to Kickstarter for their projects, crowd-funding seems like a more probable future than ever before.

Put plainly: People are not buying records. In January of 2014, record sales hit their lowest point since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking stats in 1991. That’s hurting sales for the major pop stars and just decimating them for lesser-known acts. As a New York magazine profile of Grizzly Bear said in 2012, “For much of the late-twentieth century, you might have assumed that musicians with a top-twenty sales week and a Radio City show — say, the U2 tour in 1984, after The Unforgettable Fire — made at least as much as their dentists.” That’s simply not the case anymore. Hits are being defined by decreasing numbers, and flops are becoming almost shocking in their paltry sales. (You’ll note that Robin Thicke’s sad sack of an album, “Paula,” sold a mere 530 copies during its first week on sale in the U.K.)

Digital sales aren’t faring much better. People are (illegally) downloading or streaming music, but even the legitimate options aren’t working. Back in May, Spotify announced its 10 millionth paid subscriber along with a continued inability to turn a profit. Pandora’s numbers reflect a similar issue, not being able to make money, and before all of that, a February study said that such streaming services would never turn a profit. Sadly, this is not a problem fixed with “Arrows Through The Heart,” but a commerce issue, in which the music industry needs to reevaluate the way it makes money.

Meanwhile, as Taylor Swift (probably) curled up by the fire to pen her op-ed on a typewriter while sipping herbal tea, a random guy was able to raise $60,000 for a single potato salad, and LeVar Burton’s revamping of “Reading Rainbow” pulled in $5.4 million across 100,000 backers. These are absurd and nostalgic projects, respectively, but there are plenty of music artists that have realistically shifted their efforts to Kickstarter. Take Amanda Palmer or Rufus Wainwright, for example. She raised $1.2 million to support her album and tour. Looking to fund his opera, “Prima Donna,” he took to PledgeMusic and reached 103 percent of his goal. “I think the obvious answer is: OK, pay me up front,” he said to HuffPost Entertainment. “I think any customer would be satisfied with that process. It’s fair.”

Wainwright has a point. The problem that emerges in this apparent death of the music industry is people being willing to pay for music. Whether they opt to stream or pirate, the way the consumer is procuring the goods is simply not turning a profit. So, why not have them pay for the product in advance? This is not something that is going to work for every artist every time, but the music industry has never been built on a 100 percent success rate. Since Kickstarter rose to prominence in 2012, there have been meager successes that mark it as a serious alternative to the current system. Cast among the mounting failures and rising return rates of what we might call the Potato Salad Phenomenon, crowd-funding is looking more promising than ever before. Sure, it’s not a perfect or even entirely clear-cut solution to the daunting reality of the industry’s current failings, but it’s certainly more probable than, say, a Swiftian essay about how to succeed in music without really trying.

Follow Lauren Duca on Twitter: @laurenduca

For many potheads, spending an afternoon running around looking for weed doesn’t sound like fun.

But it could be a smoking good time for weed smokers in Oakland on Saturday.

An organization called the Bay Area Quest Hunt is hosting a scavenger hunt where the jackpot is marijuana.

Pot-loving participants with California IDs and valid medical marijuana cards will search for clues scattered around the city. Those clues will lead to cards that can be cashed in for various forms of cannabis, SFWeekly reports.

Though medical marijuana is legal in California, the event’s legality is uncertain.

The event is modeled after the Hidden Cash scavenger hunts that have popped up in cities like New York, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas and Mexico City.

Prizes include pre-rolled joints, pot edibles, eighth-ounce bags of weed and THC concentrates.

Registration costs $35, and is limited to 500 people.

In addition, the first 50 people to register get a free pot cigarette, SFGate reports.

It might not be a good idea to light up before the hunt, because a car will be needed to get to many of the spots where the redeemable cards are hidden, according to the Bold Italic.

Organizers didn’t respond to HuffPost’s inquiries.
@media only screen and (min-width : 500px) {.ethanmobile { display: none; }}

Like Us On Facebook |
Follow Us On Twitter |
Contact The Author

We can now sit back and bask in what the television gods have deemed the best of the year. Amid an exceptional bout of small-screen gems, the agony of some of our favorite shows being shut out stings. If Thursday’s nominations are a marker of which of 2014’s TV programs will be remembered in years to come, then generations ahead will curse us for not better appreciating “The Good Wife,” being utterly clueless as to the fact that “Orphan Black” exists and somehow still making room for “The Big Bang Theory” as one of the six best comedies on the air.

In general, I suppose this year’s crop is fairly apt. “Orange Is the New Black” stepped up to the plate for the first time, earning an impressive 12 nominations. (Remember it’s the show’s first season that’s being recognized, not the one that just premiered in June.) “House of Cards,” the other big Netflix series, is in the running for its second season. It scored five nominations, and although that’s a dip from last year’s nine, we can still wave the big red and white flag: The age of Netflix is upon us. Even Ricky Gervais made the shortlist for “Derek,” a show that’s generated virtually no buzz.

But something shows like “Orange Is the New Black” and “Louie” call into question, perhaps more so than ever before, is whether it’s time to dissect the distinction between comedies and dramas. That’s no longer a groundbreaking statement, but to see “The Big Bang Theory” and “Modern Family” sit alongside those shows is more incongruous than ever. How can anyone compare, and in turn award, them? That’s not to say that traditional, multi-camera sitcoms can’t veer toward the dramatic at times, and it doesn’t mean that single-camera shows aren’t ever LOL funny. But, because networks must submit their programs for consideration in specific categories (unlike the Oscars, where individual voters can elect to nominate someone for either lead or supporting), much of the nominees’ placement is a result of politics. Netflix didn’t want “OITNB” to compete against “House of Cards,” like it did at the Golden Globes in January, when it couldn’t muster a nomination even though “HoC” did. If we really want to level the playing field, there must be a finer magnifying glass held up to these shows, whether it’s through a Television Academy committee issuing rulings or a new set of dramedy categories entering the race. (Then again, God forbid we do anything to make award show telecasts longer. Imagine another hour of 2013’s “sad Emmys”).

I digress. Back to “The Good Wife.” In one of the finest examples of a series’ slow build to excellence, the Julianna Margulies-fronted drama’s fifth season became one of TV’s buzziest and most electrifying phenomena. Margulies and co-stars Josh Charles and Christine Baranski made the list, but instead of earning the top recognition it was expected to, “Downton Abbey” supplanted the show for Outstanding Drama Series. No offense to the Granthams, but Julian Fellowes and his cohort have outlived their heyday. The show’s most recent season opened with two strong episodes and then took a swift dive, introducing a problematic rape subplot that should have rendered it too soapy for Emmy voters not to censure it. Instead, Michelle Dockery ignited the fire under Tatiana Maslany fans’ bellies. The celebrated “Orphan Black” actress, who portrays an entire stable of clones on one beloved BBC America show, didn’t benefit from a similar framework that won Toni Collette an Emmy for “United States of Tara.” Cue misery.

The Emmys used to be able to get away with snubbing the more out-there programs, but that was back when TV was an inferior medium (which, believe it or not, was more or less the consensus until only a few years ago). Now, it’s more glaring when categories are peppered with the same generic programming. Despite our complaints, though, maybe we’re actually seeing a bit of an uptick in terms of atypical nominees. “Modern Family,” which endured a second consecutive season of being less than outstanding, still nabbed Outstanding Comedy Series (and could, sadly, win), but previous nominees Sofia Vergara, Eric Stonestreet and Ed O’Neill were shut out. (Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell and Jesse Tyler Ferguson are accounted for, but that’s fine: Burrell is by far the show’s best performer, Bowen was a lock, and Ferguson won’t win. Progress! Or, you know, “Modern Family” could just become a great show again and actually deserve the recognition. That would be okay, too.)

On the bright side, freshman series “Silicon Valley” was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. What a pleasant surprise, even if the most deserving aspect of that show is Thomas Middleditch’s note-perfect turn as Pied Piper’s skittish founder. The “Silicon Valley” recognition points to the dissonance between the Emmys of yesteryear, when comedy nominations consisted of rote lists of networks’ most middlebrow offerings, and the Emmys of today, when it’s increasingly hard for laugh-track sitcoms — now largely considered off-trend — to make the cut.

And speaking of all things comedy, let’s pause to mourn the moment that Mindy Kaling announced the Emmy nominations live across the world, only to discover that she, too, was snubbed. That’s not technically a surprise, but I could sense a collective cringe nonetheless.

One of Kaling’s friends, “Girls” creator/star/writer/director/defender Lena Dunham, secured a nice little morning for herself. She’s great as Hannah Horvath, but an actress Dunham is not. To think of all the comedy performers who were exiled because Dunham did a good job playing herself is like another episode out of Marnie’s endless life crises. Instead, give her what she deserves: a nod for co-writing the great episode “Beach House” alongside Jenni Konner and Judd Apatow. Yay for Adam Driver, though!

Perhaps we can chalk up the “Girls” affinity to the Emmys’ loyalty to HBO. The network secured a whopping 99 nominations, miles ahead of its nearest competitor (CBS, with 47). Despite criticism over submitting “True Detective” for drama awards instead of miniseries (where anthology series like “American Horror Story” usually find a home), the show garnered every major nomination it was expected to, barring Michelle Monaghan, who had a question mark lingering over her name anyway. That means we’ll see a showdown between “True Detective,” “Breaking Bad” and “Game of Thrones” for Outstanding Drama Series. “Detective” would have guaranteed itself a miniseries win, but instead it’ll probably lose to “Breaking Bad.” So, HBO, maybe you don’t always make the right choices. (Don’t worry, the McConaissance is still alive!)

But wait! What about “Mad Men,” you say? Why haven’t we talked about “Mad Men”? Okay, here we go.

“Mad Men” won’t win anything. It can’t. The piss-poor reception its sixth season (rather deservingly) received derailed the show’s untenable admiration. It bounced back this year, but Matthew Weiner’s tight-lipped media approach is doing the show no favors these days. The buzz just isn’t quite there anymore. Still, it’s a disappointment not to see Elisabeth Moss, the shining star of Season 7’s first half, earn her due. It’s equally surprising to see the criminally under-used Christina Hendricks appear while John Slattery and everyone who isn’t Jon Hamm (or Robert Morse, who landed an Outstanding Guest Actor spot) is absent. The biggest indicator of the show’s fall is the fact that it earned no writing accolades, which is a genuine shame. Compare that to 2009, when “Mad Men” locked up four of the category’s five nominations.

Here’s what I’ll say about that, though: Praise be to “Mad Men,” but more praise be to the Television Academy for not feeling married to the show like it did “The West Wing” and now to “The Big Bang Theory.” “Mad Men” was once seen as the golden child of contemporary television, but the fact that voters have responded to its lapse is, frankly, refreshing, even if it is still a wonderful show. Regardless, poor, poor Elisabeth Moss! She should have won this year.

Ultimately, though, there is much to celebrate here: Kate Mulgrew, Uzo Aduba, Natasha Lyonne, Laverne Cox and Taylor Schilling all got “OITNB” nods, while “Fargo,” Andre Braugher (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” which should have gotten much more attention), Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”), Lizzy Caplan (“Masters of Sex”), Lena Headey (“Game of Thrones”), Kristen Wiig (“The Spoils of Babylon”), Allison Tolman (“Fargo”) and Jim Parsons (“The Normal Heart”) are great inclusions. There isn’t any love for “The Americans,” however, and my personal list of snubs includes “Broad City,” which deserved to sweep, as well as Michaela Watkins (“Trophy Wife”), Laurie Metcalf and Niecy Nash (“Getting On”), Kiernan Shipka (“Mad Men”), Hugh Dancy (“Hannibal”) and Lisa Kudrow (“Scandal”). Seriously, people. Lisa Kudrow! That sexism speech! How could you forget her? How?

I started out saying the nominations are decent, right? In writing, did I convince myself otherwise? I kind of think so. But, alas, here we are, stuck with a Television Academy that doesn’t watch “Orphan Black” and doesn’t understand “Broad City.” Congrats to everyone who was nominated. Many of you, in truth, are so, so deserving. As for the others, what are we faithful TV lovers to do? What we do best, of course: Keep on binging.

Scott Brown is trailing Jeanne Shaheen, but it doesn’t matter, because Rhode Island is like a second home to him. Richard Nixon once said on tape, ‘Well, now, kids, just go out and be gay,’ and if that isn’t your ringtone by tomorrow morning, you probably hate America. And John Boehner announced he’s going to sue the Obama administration over the employer mandate, thereby busting every journalist’s Boehner Bracket (HuffPost Hill had environmental regulations going to the finals). This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, July 10th, 2014:

BOEHNER REVEALS LAWSUIT WILL BE OVER OBAMACARE’S BUSINESS MANDATE – It’s not about immigration enforcement after all. “Today we’re releasing a draft resolution that will authorize the House to file suit over the way President Obama unilaterally changed the employer mandate,” Boehner said this afternoon. “In 2013, the president changed the health care law without a vote of Congress, effectively creating his own law by literally waiving the employer mandate and the penalties for failing to comply with it. That’s not the way our system of government was designed to work. No president should have the power to make laws on his or her own.” [Speaker.gov]

Yes, Republicans want to sue the president for not enforcing a business regulation.

U.S. CHAMBER WOULD LIKE TO KEEP ITS WAGE THEFT KTHXBYE – Cool update from the champions of moral hazard. Dave Jamieson: “Some of the nation’s leading business lobbies are pressuring House lawmakers to spike bipartisan legislation that would take government contracts away from firms that have committed wage theft. In a series of letters passed around Capitol Hill, business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Builders and Contractors urged House members to vote ‘no’ on the wage theft measure if it is proposed as an amendment to the energy and water appropriations bill. The measure, championed by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), would bar taxpayer dollars from going to companies that have recent wage theft convictions or civil penalties reported in the government’s contracting database. Although it originally faced heavy GOP opposition, the measure has nonetheless garnered enough Republican support to be successfully attached as an amendment to two appropriations bills. The amendments passed so far only pertain to certain government agencies, and business groups now appear determined to stop any further amendments in their tracks. In a letter dated Wednesday, Chamber lobbyist R. Bruce Josten said the group ‘opposes efforts to add any provision similar to and including an amendment by Rep. Ellison that would prevent contractors found to have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) from continuing to receive federal contracts.'” [HuffPost]

GOP TELLS TODD AKIN TO SHUT IT – Todd Akin, an offensive caricature who shows up at the worst possible time to mess things up, is the Jar Jar Binks of Republican politics. Politico: “Todd Akin is back talking about rape in his new book and Republicans have a message for him: Shut up. The Missouri Republican’s memoir offers no apologies for his comments on “legitimate rape,” his bruising loss to Sen. Claire McCaskill or the effect many Republicans say his remarks had on the 2012 field — when the Senate slipped through their fingers. Several operatives, consultants and politicians didn’t waste any time responding to attacks in the book, ‘Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom,’ set to be released July 15. A copy was provided to POLITICO early. ‘Todd Akin is an embarrassment to the Republican Party and the sole reason Claire McCaskill is still part of Harry Reid’s majority,’ said Brian Walsh, who served as communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2012 cycle. Akin puts Romney in his cross hairs over the 2012 presidential candidate’s decision to not defend him. He argues that Romney should have pivoted on the issue to attack Democrats and former President Bill Clinton in particular. But former Romney aides say it sounds like a lot of sour grapes from Akin. “Todd Akin has no one to blame for his loss but Todd Akin,” said Kevin Madden, a former senior adviser to Romney.” [Politico]

@dansinker: holy crap, @congressedits: tweets anonymous edits to Wikipedia from US Congress IP addresses. (ht @derekwillis)

No justice, no peac– eh I’m hungry, let’s head to We the Pizza: “Federal prosecutors in D.C. announced Thursday that they would not file criminal charges against U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Capitol Police officers who shot and killed an unarmed woman in 2013 while she was erratically driving a vehicle around the city with her child in the car. In the announcement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia made clear that the decision wasn’t meant to clear the actions of the officers who killed Miriam Carey on Oct. 3, 2013. Instead, the office concluded there was “insufficient evidence” to pursue either federal criminal civil rights charges or local charges against the officers involved.” [HuffPost’s Ryan Reilly]

WHO PREDICTED SOCIAL SECURITY CUTS WOULD FLOP? – Back before President Obama endorsed deficit reduction in 2010, Heidi Hartmann of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research interviewed members of Congress, staffers, and Social Security Administration officials about whether they thought retirement benefits would get whacked in the next five years. Among the group’s of interviewees, lawmakers did the best job correctly predicting nobody would want to get caught pushing granny off a cliff. The IWPR’s releasing Hartmann’s survey in anticipation of the next Social Security trustee’s report this summer. [IWPR.org]

IMPORTANT THING THAT SLIPPED OUR MINDST – We meant to include this in yesterday’s newsletter but we forgot…. it happens. Cameron Joseph: “Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) is back with his colleagues in Washington, D.C., after winning his hard-fought primary runoff — but he had a bit of trouble finding Senate Republicans’ weekly luncheon on Tuesday. Cochran, while talking with The Hill, made a few wrong turns before accidentally ending up at Senate Democrats’ luncheon.” [The Hill]

DAILY DELANEY DOWNER – Rex Nutting has one of several smart takes on whether the long-term jobless have benefited from not having benefits: “The Republicans are wrong when they say the big drop in the unemployment rate this year confirms that they were right to cancel unemployment checks for the long-term unemployed. There is no evidence that those who had been receiving benefits were suddenly motivated to find jobs once the checks ran out. The improvement in the jobless rate is due to a stronger economy, not the elimination of those benefits, as many conservatives claim.” It doesn’t matter. [MarketWatch.com]

UPSIDE DOWNER – Fewer and fewer new unemployment claims: “In the week ending July 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 304,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 315,000.” [DOL.gov]

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It’s free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter – @HuffPostHill

GOP SICK OF OBAMA’S BORDER PHOTO OPS, LOVES BORDER PHOTO OPS – Igor Bobic: “Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) tore into ‘tone deaf’ Obama on Tuesday for not visiting the U.S.-Mexico border to assess the crisis of immigrant children flooding across it, spurred in part by rising violence in Central America…Yet Cornyn’s office had very different words for Obama during the the president’s trip to El Paso, Texas, in May 2011, when Obama attempted to rally support for legislation that would ultimately create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. A spokesman for Cornyn criticized the trip as nothing more than a staged event that would do little to secure the nation’s border. ‘What Sen. Cornyn is looking for, President Obama cannot deliver with another speech or photo op, and that’s presidential leadership. Words matter little when there is no action,’ said Kevin McLaughlin…The president’s decision not to visit the border this week also rankled Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who equated it with former President George W. Bush’s bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. ‘It is a humanitarian crisis, and that I will suggest is the reason the president needs to come to the border, to see it himself,’ Perry saidin an interview on Fox News. ‘I think about the criticism George W. Bush received when he didn’t go to New Orleans in Katrina. This is no different.’ But he, too, spoke critically of Obama’s first trip to the border, describing it as a ‘photo-op’ and criticizing him for proclaiming that ‘the border was as safe as it’s ever been.'” [HuffPost]

Scott Brown is in trouble, bro: “With four months to go before the 2014 election, Senator Jeanne Shaheen leads her potential Republican challengers by double digits. Former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown is the strongest challenger, but he is still viewed unfavorably by Granite Staters. These findings are based on the latest WMUR Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Six hundred and sixty-nine (669) randomly selected New Hampshire adults were interviewed by landline and cellular telephone between June 19 and July 1, 2014. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3.8 percent. The sample included 509 likely voters (with a +/- 4.3 percent margin of sampling error). ” [UNH]

VA INTERNAL AUDIT FINDS MAJOR FISCAL PROBLEMS – Dave Wood: “The scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs is systematically overpaying clerks, administrators and other support staff, according to internal audits, draining tens of millions of dollars that could be used instead to ease the VA’s acute shortage of doctors and nurses. The jobs of some 13,000 VA support staff have been flagged by auditors as potentially misclassified, in many cases resulting in inflated salaries that have gone uncorrected for as long as 14 years. Rather than moving quickly to correct these costly errors, VA officials two years ago halted a broad internal review mandated by federal law. As a result, the overpayments continue. Moreover, in the two years since thousands of misclassified jobs were identified, hundreds of additional positions have been filled at improperly high salaries. Internal VA documents obtained by The Huffington Post show that between September 2013 and May 2014, for instance, overpayments in annual salaries for the latter jobs alone came to $24.4 million, not counting benefits. In May alone, senior VA classification specialists identified 284 probably misclassified positions newly posted on the federal jobs site, USAJobs. Once filled, those jobs would result in estimated overpayments of $3.3 million per year. For that amount of money, the VA could instead hire five neurosurgeons, 10 psychiatrists and five suicide prevention case managers at the average salaries currently offered on USAJobs.” [HuffPost]

The Left’s mom and dad are fighting, prompting the Left to run up to its room and play its Cure albums extra loud: “One of the largest labor unions in the country is severing its ties with the United Negro College Fund over the storied scholarship group’s relationship with the Koch brothers. Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said in a letter to UNCF President Michael Lomax on Thursday that it was ‘with the deepest regret’ that the union would pull out of a scholarship program run jointly by the two groups. Saunders himself is African-American…Lomax’s decision to speak at a ‘Koch brothers summit in California,’ Saunders said, ‘was a betrayal of everything the UNCF stands for.’ He explained, ‘Your appearance at the summit can only be interpreted as a sign of your personal support and the UNCF’s organizational support of the Koch brothers’ ideological program.'” [HuffPost]

BIPARTISAN SPORTSMEN BILL KILLED BY BIPARTISAN OPPOSITION – Washington worked for once, just a little too hard this time. Roll Call: “The bipartisan sportsmen’s bill championed by endangered Sen. Kay Hagan became another election year casualty today with a majority of the Senate refusing to end debate. The North Carolina Democrat’s measure, which would expand hunting and fishing access on federal land, was falling well short of the 60 votes to invoke cloture and end debate on the measure, as a number of Democrats joined Republicans to rebuff Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid after he moved to block amendments. Just 41 voted in support of cloture and 56 opposed. Despite having broad bipartisan support, Republicans turned their nose up at the package after the Nevada Democrat filled the amendment tree yesterday, blocking the ability to get votes on their amendments. Reid had urged Republicans to give him a reasonable list of amendments to approve that would lead to passage of the bill. He was concerned Republicans were more interested in scoring political points than in legislating. A slew of politically charged gun rights amendments had been filed to the proposal.” [Roll Call]

NSA GOING TO FAR: POLL – The agency could apologize by pinging “Sorry” in morse in the middle of Americans’ phone calls. Emily Swanson: “Most Americans think government surveillance that gathers up masses of telephone and Internet data goes “too far,” a new HuffPost/YouGov poll shows. And 2 in 5 think the government has recorded their own phone calls or emails. Fifty-nine percent of the survey’s respondents said the programs that collect phone and Internet communications as a way to prevent terrorism collect too much information about Americans, while only 20 percent said the government strikes the right balance in deciding what data to collect. Six percent said the government doesn’t go far enough in collecting that information. The “goes too far” view was shared by 66 percent of Republicans, 63 percent of independents and a 48 percent plurality of Democrats. Many Americans aren’t even convinced that the surveillance programs do much to fight terrorism. A combined 43 percent said the phone and Internet data collection efforts are very likely (13 percent) or somewhat likely (30 percent) to have prevented a terrorist attack. But 47 percent said they were somewhat unlikely (23 percent) or very unlikely (24 percent) to have done so.” [HuffPost]

BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR – Here’s a dog pretending to be an ambulance.

BORN THIS WAY: RICHARD NIXON – Vanity Fair’s Douglas Brinkley has been researching the Nixon tapes for a forthcoming book and this excerpt featuring Nixon talking about homosexuality is great bit of jowel-shaking paranoia: “During a discussion with Haldeman and Kissinger about an annual youth conference, the subject turned to homosexuality and society. Nixon: Let me say something before we get off the gay thing. I don’t want my views misunderstood. I am the most tolerant person on that of anybody in this shop. They have a problem. They’re born that way. You know that. That’s all. I think they are. Anyway, my point is, though, when I say they’re born that way, the tendency is there. [But] my point is that Boy Scout leaders, YMCA leaders, and others bring them in that direction, and teachers. And if you look over the history of societies, you will find, of course, that some of the highly intelligent people . . . Oscar Wilde, Aristotle, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, were all homosexuals. Nero, of course, was, in a public way, in with a boy in Rome. Haldeman: There’s a whole bunch of Roman emperors. . . . Nixon: But the point is, look at that, once a society moves in that direction, the vitality goes out of that society. Now, isn’t that right, Henry? Kissinger: Well— Nixon: Do you see any other change, anywhere where it doesn’t fit? Kissinger: That’s certainly been the case in antiquity. The Romans were notorious— Haldeman: The Greeks. Kissinger: —homosexuals. . . . Nixon: The Greeks. And they had plenty of it. . . . By God, I am not going to have a situation where we pass along a law indicating, ‘Well, now, kids, just go out and be gay.’ They can do it. Just leave them alone. That’s a lifestyle I don’t want to touch. . . . Kissinger: It’s one thing for people to, you know, like some people we know, who would do it discreetly, but to make that a national policy . . .” [Vanity Fair]

COMFORT FOOD

– The sound of Maxi Rodriguez’s goal in Argentina. [http://bit.ly/1qnZWFK]

– If company slogans and advertising were more honest. [http://huff.to/1nbR2aO]

– Short music video explaining the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. [http://bit.ly/1kasH5k]

– What $2000 can get you in Brooklyn these days (spoiler: next to nothing). [http://bit.ly/1lXKSuD]

– Watch Germany’s Thomas Muller destroy the dance floor. [https://vine.co/v/MUQjpvDKr9B]

– Dogs going down stairs for the first time. [http://huff.to/TVG8i9]

– Japanese chef is the world master of pancakes. [http://bit.ly/VQ7mIC]

TWITTERAMA

@CarrieNBCNews: Per pool, Obama is exercising his executive power to not have to wait 19 hours in line at Franklin BBQ in Austin like the rest of us would

@elisefoley: So, if Obama went out and was like “yeah, guys, this is my fault,” would Republicans approve funding for the border crisis?

@daveweigel: Needed: A “1776”-style musical version of the decision to sue Obama. The lead character’s named John and everything!

Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e

Shopping for your very first motorcycle? Start here. The 2015 Honda CB300F promises to be fun to ride, affordable and incredibly cheap to run. It’s the perfect learning tool for new riders.

Read more…