Ted Johnson, reporting for Deadline:

CNN head Jeff Zucker said that the network has fired three employees for going into the office without being vaccinated against Covid-19, and that parent WarnerMedia may ultimately require proof of the shots. […]

“In the past week, we have been made aware of three employees who were coming to the office unvaccinated,” Zucker wrote in an email to staff. “All three have been terminated. Let me be clear — we have a zero-tolerance policy on this. You need to be vaccinated to come to the office. And you need to be vaccinated to work in the field, with other employees, regardless of whether you enter an office or not. Period. We expect that in the weeks ahead, showing proof of vaccination may become a formal part of the WarnerMedia Passcard process. Regardless, our expectations remain in place.”

Yes. More.

Juliette Kayyem, assistant secretary for homeland security under President Obama, writing for The Atlantic:

The White House has rejected a nationwide vaccine mandate—a sweeping suggestion that the Biden administration could not easily enact if it wanted to—but a no-fly list for unvaccinated adults is an obvious step that the federal government should take. It will help limit the risk of transmission at destinations where unvaccinated people travel—and, by setting norms that restrict certain privileges to vaccinated people, will also help raise the stagnant vaccination rates that are keeping both the economy and society from fully recovering.

Flying is not a right, and the case for restricting it to vaccinated people is straightforward: The federal government is the sole entity that can regulate the terms and conditions of airline safety. And although air-filtration systems and mask requirements make transmission of the coronavirus unlikely during any given passenger flight, infected people can spread it when they leave the airport and take off their mask.

This needs to happen right now.

Where were you on August 1, 1981?

The video starts off with a Space Shuttle countdown, the iconic launch of Apollo 11, and the planting of the MTV flag, during which the famous phrase “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll” was uttered. The first music video to air was The Buggles song “Video Killed the Radio Star.” The new VJs then introduced themselves, and from there the world as we knew it was no more. You probably know the Buggles video for “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first video ever aired on MTV, but do you know the second?

Just seeing the bumpers for MTV is taking me back to being in high school with music and music videos being everything.

Aaron E. Carroll, the chief health officer for Indiana University, echoes a lot of my thoughts about mandates in a guest column for The New York Times.

Many may read the C.D.C.’s continued focus on masking and distancing as an acknowledgment that the vaccines don’t work well enough. Leaning heavily on masking and distancing is what we did when we didn’t have vaccinations. Today, such recommendations are less likely to succeed because they are more likely to be followed by those already primed to listen — the vaccinated — and to be fought and ignored by those who aren’t.

Hospitalizations and deaths are rising in some areas not because someone didn’t wear a mask at the ballgame. They’re occurring because too many people are not immunized.

This is why I’ve advocated vaccine mandates. I don’t understand how we can mandate wearing masks but not getting vaccinations.

These morons who won’t get vaccinated are not killing those of us who are vaccinated… they are killing others like themselves–too stupid to save themselves. We are right on the verge of massive celebrations and now we can’t quite get over the hump because of the unvaccinated.

For some strange reason that makes no sense, they don’t get that for them the pandemic has not changed. In all the places with low numbers of vaccinated people, many of them are catching COVID, getting dangerously sick, being put on ventilators, and dying.

I would beseech the Biden Administration to issue a vaccination mandate, except I know they won’t.

Jade Scipioni, writing at CNBC, reports on the comments from Charles Barkley, a guy who famously said he wasn’t a role model.

“Yes, I’m vaccinated,” says NBA legend Charles Barkley. “Everybody should be vaccinated. Period.”

“The only people who are not vaccinated are just assholes,” he says.

The 58-year-old NBA Hall-of-Famer says he personally thinks sports leagues should force players to get vaccinated. “Can you imagine if one of these guys that are not vaccinated, if they get one of these players’ kids, wives, girlfriends, moms and dads sick and they die over some unnecessary conspiracy bullshit,” Barkley says. “I think that would be tragic.”

Well, he’s not wrong. Vaccine mandates are the only solution that will work.

"I can see why someone would take issue with the title of terrorist, it's gained a lot of notoriety in our vocabulary in the past few decades ... But I came prepared," Officer Hodges explains why he refers to the Jan. 6th rioters as 'terrorists.' pic.twitter.com/jkkN4g9EDE

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 27, 2021

When Capitol police officer Daniel Hodges appeared before Congress and was asked why he referred to the pro-Trump rioters of January 6 as terrorists, he simply read the US Code that defines terrorism.

Smart.

When I first saw it, I didn’t love it. After a bit, it’s growing on me more and more, especially after learning its origins. I have never been to Cleveland and have never heard of the ‘Guardians of Traffic’ or even noticed them in Major League (a comedy about the Cleveland Indians, among other things). Also, I read that Corey Barnes made a good case for ‘Guardians’ a year ago.

Apparently, the Guardians was one of several fan favorites going into the announcement. The name is inspired by the four art deco statues, the Guardians Of Traffic, that appear on a bridge near the team’s stadium. It’s also apparent the team wanted something that worked well with the “dians” part of the original name. I would have bet they were going to go with “Spiders” for historical and obvious cool logo reasons.

However, the new logo looks decent. It’s not Seattle Kraken-good, but it’s a cool script, even though it kind of looks like the Milwaukee Tool logo. The winged “G” baseball (the “Guardian’s Fastball,” per the team) reminds me of a bad video game graphic, and I dislike it a lot, but it isn’t the Chief Wahoo caricature, so there’s that.

I do like the new ‘C’ mark. It’s a blend of the current ‘C’ mark mixed with the new Guardians type. It’s far better than the “Fastball” logo. The jerseys with Cleveland across the front should have been in the same font as the Guardians script, so it kind of throws the whole look off.

Doing a complete brand change is difficult. I think they pulled it off pretty well. Next up… hey there, Washington Football Team …what’s it gonna be? Red Tails? Renegades? Redhawks? Generals?

Randy Arozarena hits a single and then comes around to score because of two errors by the third baseman fielding a throw and then making a bad throw to homeplate. Even worse a second throw to home by the pitcher trying to get Arozarena who’s kept running the entire time is wild and he’s easily safe. The Cleveland Baseball Club looks like the Bad News Bears.

Just terrible baseball.

Nicky Case explains RSS and why it was so damn good:

Imagine an open version of Twitter or Facebook News Feed, with no psy-op ads, owned by no oligopoly, manipulated by no algorithm, and all under your full control.

Imagine a version of the newsletter where you don’t have to worry about them selling your email to scammers, labyrinth-like unsubscribe pages, or stuffing your inbox with ever more crap.

Now imagine this existed and was extremely popular 15 years ago. Then we got suckered by the shiny walled gardens.

Well, it’s time to make like a tree and go back to the future, baby!

I don’t know about you, but RSS has never really left. I use Inoreader and it’s just the best.

Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny, reporting for NBC News:

Some anti-vaccination groups on Facebook are changing their names to euphemisms like “Dance Party” or “Dinner Party,” and using code words to fit those themes in order to skirt bans from Facebook, as the company attempts to crack down on misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines.

The groups, which are largely private and unsearchable but retain large user bases accrued during the years Facebook permitted anti-vaccination content, also swap out language to fit the new themes and provide code legends, according to screenshots provided to NBC News by multiple members of the groups.

One major “dance party” group has more than 40,000 followers and has stopped allowing new users amid public scrutiny. The backup group for “Dance Party,” known as “Dinner Party” and created by the same moderators, has more than 20,000 followers.

If NBC News can identify them, then Facebook can absolutely find them. I’m pretty convinced Facebook is aware of them already and letting it go on. Why? So they can ignore it and keep people on the platform and also say look we are removing the anti-vax content. It is highly infuriating and another reason why I’m seriously considering removing myself from Facebook.

Dennis Pillion, writing at AL.com:

Dr. Brytney Cobia said Monday that all but one of her COVID patients in Alabama did not receive the vaccine. The vaccinated patient, she said, just needed a little oxygen and is expected to fully recover. Some of the others are dying.

“I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections,” wrote Cobia, a hospitalist at GrandviewMedical Center in Birmingham, in an emotional Facebook post-Sunday. “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”

Dr. Cobia treats Covid-19 patients in a state that ranks last in the US in fully vaccinated adults. This story should be spread far and wide. I know I need more empathy in my life, but it is really hard to muster it up for these poor people.

Honestly, if you can just

show up around when you said you were going to

and do some approximation of what you said you were going to do

and be half decent at your work

I’d say you’re operating at a level 99% above most human beings right now

— Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) July 20, 2021

Sounds about right.

Kevin Drum has a good idea on what a billionaire should do with their wealth.

If I were a multi-billionaire, what would I do with my money? Unfortunately, the really big problems—climate change, national healthcare, racism, etc.—are too big even for a billionaire. Only national governments can really address them.

Instead I would dedicate my fortune to destroying Fox News. I would do it any way I could. Marketing. Lawsuits. Boycotts. Talent poaching. Cable access. Making Rupert Murdoch’s life miserable. You name it. Nor would I have any qualms about playing fair. You have a plan for a space-based laser that interferes with Fox News broadcasts and makes them unwatchable? Great! Here’s a hundred million to give it a go.

Fox News may have started out with narrower goals, but today it’s explicitly aimed at undermining American politics and getting us to hate each other. Why? Because it adds to the fortune of an Australian plutocrat who thinks that plundering the American public is a great way of becoming ever richer. Ditto for the on-air “talent,” which has become rich by figuring out ever bigger and better ways of scaring the poor schmoes who trust them.

American politics is unlikely to recover until Fox News is reduced to rubble. Anyone know a billionaire who agrees?

I could not agree more.

Drew Magary, writing on Defector, has a few choice words regarding Stephen A. Smith’s racist take on Shohei Ohtani. I have never, ever been a fan of Smith and his horribly stupid comments are really just the icing on the cake.

Shohei Ohtani could end up being the most remarkable and exciting baseball player of my lifetime, and perhaps he already is. If you watched him at the Home Run Derby last night, you didn’t need a goddamn interpreter to love him. The man’s got enough smiles and enough titanic dingers to win you over, no matter who the fuck you are. So it’s not simply that Stephen A. was wrong about Ohtani in the ugliest possible way, but that he was so NEEDLESSLY wrong. He didn’t need to be talking about Ohtani at all. But this is what happens when ESPN hitches its wagon to ONE guy, and then decides to filter everything that happens in sports through him. When I wrote that GQ profile, I was told by someone within the industry that Stephen A. was quietly campaigning for the network to replace his First Take co-host, Max Kellerman. I couldn’t verify that claim, and Max still occupies a chair opposite Stephen A. every weekday morning. But that clip above shows you that Max, in fact, already HAS been replaced. By his own co-host.

I do not give a shit about ESPN, but they should do something. I know they won’t. Magary knows they won’t. The coin of the realm is attention, and Smith does this well.

The show will go on. Everything remains content. ESPN isn’t gonna suspend Stephen A. for this. They’re not gonna fine him. They’re not gonna shitcan him. Through a combination of relentless ambition and a terminal inability to say NO, Stephen A. has become too big to fail at ESPN. A one-man take monopoly. And when you have no competing voices standing in his way, he reveals his blind spots more frequently and with virtually no blowback.

I would like Major League Baseball to prosper, and Ohtani is an amazing worldwide ambassador. Everything else is noise, and I don’t have to pay attention.

John DeVore, writing on his site Humungus, mentions how college-age women don’t want to date Republicans. Apparently, a think-tank writer named Eric Kaufman wrote an essay in The National Review this week that postulated “conservatives need to make more babies or risk securing a future for white, Trump-supporting children.”

Kaufman sees a future where an all-powerful liberal majority crushes conservatives underfoot, like a terminator cyborg stomping a human skull. He suggests, somehow, that liberals are a rising evil empire and ignores that Trump-supporters are, first and foremost, uncompromising. They refuse to debate. They long to torment and mock and ‘own the libs.’ They are proud of their refusal to hear what other people have to say.

Even if I were to meet a charming, attractive Trump-supporter who I wanted to get to know romantically, we would be doomed to fail because their entire political identity is based on being an intolerant asshole who doesn’t care what you think.

Look, I live with a college-age woman, and she has already figured out that Trump supporters are assholes who deserve to be avoided, shamed, and shunned. My step-daughter is far smarter about race, sexual orientation, and politics than I ever was at her age. Like The Who said, “the kids are alright.” It’s the aging conservative population that’s in real trouble. Being a Trumpist is a comfortable delusion. It is madness. It is unreality. It is dangerous.

I fear what DeVore fears: young men who think they are “owed” things.

The only thing Kaufman doesn’t do is threaten to weaponize horny young men, but that’s coming soon. There will be more political violence, and the tip of that spear will be young conservative men manipulated by older think tank intellectuals into believing they are owed power, and money, and sex.

Preposterous.

Glenn Kenny, writing on the Decider, has a fantastic piece about Richard Donner. It starts off this way:

If a filmmaker’s critical stock were based on the amount of pleasure they brought to mass audiences, Richard Donner, who died yesterday at age 91, would be in the pantheon.

You can easily forget how many amazing films he directed. Donner made movies people wanted to see and he was a master craftsman. My personal favorite is Superman: The Movie. He had style, and no one else’s style was quite like his. He’ll be missed.

John DeVore, on Humungus, wrote a little something about the passing of Donald Rumsfeld.

Under Rumsfeld’s watch, the U.S. tortured and abused prisoners and tens of thousands of innocent people were killed in wars that still smolder. That ‘war on terror’ transformed America into a country that surveilled the world, and it’s own people, in a paranoid attempt to prevent terrorism. It cost this country unimaginable amounts of blood and treasure to secure this feeling of security and in the future, when the war on terror is studied, they’ll find a story of fear and cruelty and a handful of men who had too much faith in the power of violence and the right of America to do whatever it wants.

Rumsfeld is dead now, which means he’s part of history. And history forgets details because history is lazy. History is what happens when the truth takes off its pants and gets comfortable.

What a cruel and stupid man.

Jonathan D. Karl, writing for The Atlantic, has an article about William Barr and his refusal to go along with the big lie — that Donald Trump won the election.

Barr also looked into allegations that voting machines across the country were rigged to switch Trump votes to Biden votes. He received two briefings from cybersecurity experts at the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. “We realized from the beginning it was just bullshit,” Barr told me, noting that even if the machines somehow changed the count, it would show up when they were recounted by hand. “It’s a counting machine, and they save everything that was counted. So you just reconcile the two. There had been no discrepancy reported anywhere, and I’m still not aware of any discrepancy.”

I don’t have an ounce of sympathy for Barr. He made his bed.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court has upheld the the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that the NCAA’s restrictions on paid educational benefits violate antitrust law.

Directly, this ruling will have only moderate impact as it only affects payments tied to an educational benefit (say, the school providing athletes with a laptop, or paid internships.) The bigger impact came from the decisions, where even the conservative wing of the Court took the NCAA to task — Gorsuch outright called the amateurism rules “horizontal price fixing in a market where the defendants exercise monopoly control”, while Kavanaugh noted that the NCAA’s model would be clearly illegal in any other industry in the US.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future. My simple guess is the “Olympic” sports like swimming, diving, gymnastics, wrestling, and the like will gone. Hope I’m wrong.

Alex Sherman, writing for CNBC, has a great story regarding Anthony Wood, the founder and CEO of Roku and how he had his finger pressed firmly on the pulse of television viewers and the future of TV. The best line is right here:

Wood also noted that Roku’s relatively unchanging user interface and simple remote control have appealed to customers because users want simplicity.

“Many companies just don’t really understand the attitude people have when they’re watching TV,” said Wood. “People want to sit there, drink their beer, and watch TV.”

Incredibly inciteful and, in my opinion, super obvious.