Good morning! Some competitions blur the line between winning and losing. On Friday, a Pekingese good boy named Wild Thang won the 2024 World's Ugliest Dog competition after three years as runner-up. Wild Thang and his owner took home $5,000 and will appear this morning on "The Today Show."

SUPREME COURT

⚖️ Supremes go courting

No good at teaching but still want summers off? Might we suggest devoting your life from age 12 to becoming a Supreme Court justice? You earn a nice little salary of $298,500 (more if you're the Chief) while getting to smack around Congress and the president. The only slight downside is that you'll be a hate magnet.

The Supreme Court sits in terms that roughly run from early October to late June. They hear arguments in a case but may not release their decision (called an opinion) on that case for many months. This time of year — right before that sick vacay to a summer lecture series in Maine — they tend to drop the hot political opinions and dip.

Here's a quick look at a few recent cases and what they mean along with the hammers they might drop later this week:

Abortion: Here's an abortion decision unrelated to abortion. All nine justices agreed to toss a lawsuit that wanted to ban abortion pill mifepristone. They said the group that sued didn't have legal standing (the right to sue).

• The gist: Per the justices, this was the legal version of Chili's suing Geico for not providing its employees with iPhones. Maybe they should, maybe they shouldn't. But it's not Chili's call.

Trademarks: This was also unanimous. In case you were wondering, you can't trademark somebody else's name without their permission. Seems obvious?

Guns: This was decided 6-3, so we're getting a little more contentious. But the ruling, once again, wasn't on the merits of the policy itself. It was about process. In 2018, the cool-stuff-regulators at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (the ATF) banned bump stocks. A bump stock attaches to the butt-end of a rifle and uses recoil to spring the gun back forward, making it easier to fire a second time.

The ATF banned these by using a 1934 law to call them machine guns. The court ruled that, per that law, they aren't machine guns. But Congress is still free to take up the issue and change that law.

• The gist: "They can't do that!" "They can't. But they might be able to."

Guns (again): Less contentious again (this one's 8-1), the justices upheld a 1994 federal law that bans people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from having guns.

• The gist: "They took my gun even though I haven't been convicted of a crime!" "And?"

Mandatory Repatriation: In a 7-2 vote, the court upheld a 2017 tax on undistributed profits from foreign... you know what? This one's boring. Next.

Marriage: A California woman married a guy from El Salvador. The federal government denied his application to enter the country and live with his wife. They thought he was a gang member (due in part to some sus tattoos). The court ruled 6-3 that Americans don't have a fundamental right to bring their foreign spouses into the country.

• The gist: "Can my foreign husband come to America" "No." "Why?" "Because we said so."

What's left? Not a lot. This week (and perhaps next), the Supreme Court will decide a few small cases related to presidents being immune to prosecution, January 6th defendants, social media coercion, and federal regulatory powers. Nothing too controversial.

Over in the more powerful branch of government:

• 🩺 Congress is considering a rule that would allow members who are doctors to practice medicine on the side. The existing side gig income cap of $31,815 will stick around regardless.

• 🥎 Two weeks after the Congressional Baseball Game, the ladies will take the field in the Congressional Softball Game on Wednesday. The bipartisan congressional team will take on D.C. journalists to raise $600,000 for charity.

• 🔎 The internal, non-criminal House Ethics Committee's investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz is intensifying. Investigators interviewed one woman who said Gaetz paid her for sex and others who said they attended drug-fueled parties with him. Gaetz (obviously) denies the allegations.

POLITICS

⚪ Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) is optimistic about Biden’s chances but believes the presidential race in his state will be "close." Minnesota has a small but rock-steady Democratic lean and last went Republican in 1972. Biden won the state by 7% in 2020, improving on Hillary’s 1.5% win in 2016.

🔵 Joe Biden has been at presidential retreat Camp David since Thursday preparing for his debate with Trump. Debate camp is presumed to include mock debates, with his personal attorney playing the part of Donald Trump.

• A CBS poll has Biden destroying Trump among 18-20 year old voters, 61% to 38%. On the other side of the age curve, an AARP poll has the president up by 5% among voters 65+.

• The Democratic National Convention, where presidential and VP candidates are officially nominated, is August 19-22. But the Democratic Party plans to make the Biden/Harris nominations official via Zoom sometime ahead of the DNC.

🔴 Donald Trump says he’s picked his VP candidate and that the person will attend Thursday's presidential debate.

• Sean O’Brien, the Teamsters (huge labor union) president who tried to fight a Republican senator last year, will speak at the Republican Convention. Most unions endorse Democrats and the Teamsters are no different. They supported Biden in 2020 but, unlike most others, have yet to endorse this year.

• The same AARP poll that has Biden narrowly leading among 65+ voters has Trump cruising with the 50 to 64 age bracket. He leads that demo by 15%.

TRIVIA

The 2024 Olympics will be held in Paris, France (Paris, Texas just missed the cut). But four years from now, they’ll return to the United States when Los Angeles holds the 2028 Summer Games. When was the last time the Olympics were held in the United States?

Hint: A Republican was president at the time.

WORLD

🇯🇵 Japan: The race for governor of Tokyo is... something. Police warned one candidate (who campaigns dressed as the Joker) for including naked women on his campaign signs. Another candidate is 96 years old. Yet another is using his allotted campaign ad space to get laid. Whoever said politics was boring?

🇳🇦 Namibia: The southern African country's ban on same-sex male relationships is no more. The Supreme Court struck down the colonial-era ban as unconstitutional after a lawsuit funded by a British charity. Meanwhile, up in Ghana, even identifying as gay can land you in jail.

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: Over 1,300 people died trying to make the Hajj this year during extreme 120°+ heat. The Hajj is a religious pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca. Saudi Arabia says most pilgrims were unpermitted and without adequate transportation or shelter.

BRIEFS

• The U.S. Olympic team (among others) will defy Paris's climate goals and bring its athletes their own AC units to the Summer Games

• Redbox, which is still in business, can’t pay its bills, signaling financial woes for its parent company, Chicken Soup for the Soul

• A woman in Florida (where else) got busted for selling illegal Botox and filler injections in a mall parking lot

• The U.S. will ban the Russian-made Kaspersky antivirus software next month over national security concerns

• Trump Media stock (aka Truth Social) has tanked by 50% in the past three weeks, slicing Trump's on-paper net worth by $3 billion

• Those puffy air pillows in Amazon packages will soon be no more — the company is replacing them with 100% recycled paper filler

QUOTE

SNACKS

🦞Weird Trophy: NASCAR’s race yesterday, the USA Today 301, took place in New Hampshire. In true New England fashion, instead of a big golden cup, the winner receives a 20-pound lobster. The thing gets cooked. Then they mail the winner the meat and reassemble the shell into a trophy.

🌕 Strawberry Moon: In less delicious (but more photogenic) news, Space.com has photos from around the world of last weekend's Strawberry Moon.

👟 Olympics: The 2024 Summer Olympics start late next month, so it's crunch time for the hopefuls. Four years after getting booted for a positive cannabis test, sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson made Team USA on Saturday. She ran 100 meters in 10.71 seconds.

ANSWER

Just five months after 9/11, Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics in February 2002. The Games were a financial dumpster fire before organizers called in a big gun as CEO in the form of Bain Capital executive Mitt Romney. Romney turned the ship around, saw the Olympics through, and, just eight months later, was elected governor of Massachusetts.

There’s a good chance that without the Salt Lake Olympics, Barack Obama would’ve had to beat some other guy in the 2012 presidential race.