Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Roasts Kevin McCarthy and His Sad “Boy Math”

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used “boy math” to epically troll Kevin McCarthy over the looming Republican-created government shutdown.

“Boy math” is a phrase used on social media to joke about the way heterosexual men stereotypically rationalize or misvalue numbers or prices. Some examples of boy math include “how 5’10” measures 6’,” “having a 70inch tv but no dining table,” and “being afraid of gold diggers when you only have 3 pairs of socks to your name.”

Ocasio-Cortez joined the trend with a hilarious tweet Tuesday night.

Congress is just days away from its September 30 deadline to pass a spending bill—and House Republicans are in shambles. The farthest-right wing of the party is threatening to shut down the government unless federal spending is slashed dramatically. The House failed last week to even begin debating on the Defense Department appropriations bill, when five Republicans broke from their party to block a procedural rule to begin debating the appropriations measure.

The Senate advanced a short-term funding bill late Tuesday that would keep the government open into November. But given the House’s chaos, it’s unclear whether the measure would even pass the second chamber.

This is the second Democratic representative to take hilarious aim at McCarthy over the shutdown. Angie Craig introduced the “My Constituents Cannot Afford Rebellious Tantrums, Handle Your Shutdown Act,” or the “MCCARTHY Shutdown Act,” last week.

The bill would temporarily block the paychecks of Congress members during a government shutdown. Currently, shutdowns do not affect pay for lawmakers, but they stop pay for all other federal employees.

A New York state Supreme Court judge judge ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump committed business fraud and ordered that all his New York business certificates be canceled. This makes it nearly impossible to do business in New York and could effectively kill the Trump Organization as it exists today.

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump and the Trump Organization in September 2022 for business fraud. She is seeking a penalty of $250 million. Judge Arthur Engoron issued a partial summary judgment on Tuesday that determined the thrust of James’s case is true and that a trial is not necessary to find Trump liable.

Engoron ruled that the business certificates for “any entity controlled or beneficially owned” by Trump, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, and Trump Organization executive Jeffrey McConney must be canceled.

He gave the men 10 days to come up with three potential independent candidates to handle the dissolution of all related businesses.

Engoron also fined Trump’s lawyers $7,500 each for repeating arguments he had previously dismissed.

“Defendants’ conduct in reiterating these frivolous arguments is egregious,” he said in his ruling. “We are way beyond the point of ‘sophisticated counsel should have known better’; we are at the point of intentional and blatant disregard of controlling authority and law of the case. This Court emphatically rejected these arguments, as did the First Department. Defendants’ repetition of them here is indefensible.”

The case was set to go to trial on Monday. It likely still will, but only so Engoron can determine the extent of the damages that Trump and his co-defendants owe.

Trump’s lawyers had previously asked Engoron to issue a summary judgment in their favor dismissing many of the charges against him. They cited a June appeals court ruling that said some of the claims against Trump might be too old to be tried. Obviously, it didn’t work.

James found that Trump had dramatically inflated his net worth, by as much as $3.6 billion in one year. Her lawsuit accused Trump of lying about the value of various real estate assets, including skyscrapers and golf courses, allowing him and his associates to get benefits such as favorable loan terms and lower insurance premiums.

Trump claimed his Trump Tower apartment in Manhattan was three times its actual size and worth $327 million. No New York City apartment has ever sold for that much, James said.

He also valued Mar-a-Lago at $739 million. In reality, it’s worth about a tenth of that amount. His valuation was based on the property’s potential for residential development, but the terms of its deed prevent the land from ever being used that way.

This is the second lawsuit this month that Trump has lost through a summary judgment. In early September, a federal judge ruled that Trump is liable for defaming E. Jean Carroll in 2019 and owes her monetary damages, which will be set at a trial that begins in January.

This story has been corrected to note the judge’s correct title.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Texas’s drag ban law is unconstitutional, and permanently blocked all state officials from enforcing the measure.

Governor Greg Abbott signed the extreme law in June, making Texas the fourth Republican-led state to enact such a law. The measure was written so broadly that opponents worried it would create a host of unforeseen issues beyond just targeting drag shows.

Judge David Hittner ruled that the law was “unconstitutionally vague,” “unconstitutionally overbroad,” and discriminatory.

“Not all people will like or condone certain performances. This is no different than a person’s opinion on certain comedy or genres of music, but that alone does not strip First Amendment protection,” he said in his ruling.

“However, in addition to the pure entertainment value there are often political, social, and cultural messages involved in drag performances.”

The law criminalized any performances that occurred or could have occurred in front of a minor if they are of a sexual nature. Performers could be charged with a misdemeanor (and face up to one year in jail, a $4,000 fine, or both), while any business that hosted the show would face a $10,000 fine. The bill’s sponsor stripped out any specific references to drag, but opponents argued the vaguely worded legislation was still targeting LGBTQ people.

A group of lawyers previously told The Dallas Morning News that the vague wording could also restrict performances by artists such as Madonna and Miley Cyrus, bachelorette parties, cheerleading, and could even criminalize sexual conduct between consenting 17-year-olds (17 is the age of consent in Texas).

Hittner also referred to a recent federal case that banned a drag performance. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, best known for trying to ban the abortion pill mifepristone, ruled last week that West Texas A&M University had not violated the First Amendment by prohibiting students from hosting a drag show earlier this year.

In a letter to the student body, the university president compared drag shows to “blackface.” “Drag shows stereotype women in cartoon-like extremes for the amusement of others and discriminates against womanhood,” Walter Wendler wrote. “Drag shows are derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny, no matter the stated intent.”

In Tuesday’s ruling, in the politest legalese possible, Hittner told Kacsmaryk he could stuff it: “The president’s sentiment reinforces this Court’s opinion that while some people may find a performance offensive or morally objectionable, it does not mean the performance is not expressive or given First Amendment protection.”

President Joe Biden on Tuesday became the first sitting U.S. president to ever visit a picket line, when he joined striking members of the United Auto Workers Union in Michigan.

“I’ve marched a lot of UAW picket lines when I was a senator, since 1973, but I’ll tell you what: This is the first time I’ve done it as president,” Biden said in a brief address to the workers gathered outside General Motors’ Willow Run Redistribution Center in Belleville, who have been striking since September 15.

“Folks, stick with it because you deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits,” Biden said. He also voiced his support for the striking workers and called upon the Big Three automakers—Ford, GM, and Stellantis—to “step up.”

“UAW, you saved the auto industry back in 2008 and before,” Biden said. “You made a lot of sacrifices, you gave up a lot, and the companies were in trouble, and now they’re doing incredibly well, and you should be doing incredibly well too.”

When Biden was asked whether striking workers should receive the 40 percent wage increase they are demanding, he said, “Yes.”

Biden was greeted at the Detroit Metro Airport earlier in the day by UAW President Shawn Fain and Representatives Debbie Dingell, Rashida Tlaib, and Shri Thanedar, as well as Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist.

Biden’s arrival at the UAW picket line is a startling kicker to nearly four decades of declining union membership.

Fain thanked the president for his visit on Tuesday.

“Thank you for coming to stand up with us in our generation’s defining moment,” Fain said to the rallying workers. “We know the president will do right by the working class, and when we do right by the working class, you can leave the rest to us because we’re going to take care of this business.”

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is also planning his own visit to Michigan on Wednesday—but he is set to speak at a nonunion supplier, 50 miles away from striking workers, where he plans to blame the electric vehicle transition for the strike, according to state Senator Mallory McMorrow.

During a campaign trip to South Carolina, Donald Trump took some time to visit the gun store that sold weapons to the racist Jacksonville, Florida, mass shooter.

Trump visited Palmetto State Armory on Monday, where he admired a handgun engraved and decorated in his honor. He repeatedly said he wanted to buy a gun there—which would be a violation of federal law given his many indictments.

A lot of the media has focused on whether Trump actually purchased a gun and violated the law, but less attention has been paid to Trump’s decision to visit Palmetto State Armory, as opposed to any other gun store in South Carolina.

In late August, a white man opened fire in a Dollar General store in a predominantly Black Jacksonville neighborhood, killing three people, all of whom were Black. The shooter, who then killed himself, used a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, at least one of which was painted with a swastika. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the shooter “hated Black people” and acted alone.

At least one of the guns came from Palmetto State Armory, a store in Summerville, South Carolina. The Jacksonville sheriff’s office shared photos of the firearms used in the attack on its Facebook page. One of the guns is clearly engraved with the Palmetto State Armory logo. The shooter had also drawn swastikas on the gun.

When the Jacksonville shooting happened, Trump did not issue any statement on the tragedy. But you could argue that this campaign stop is a kind of tacit statement. He put the spotlight on Palmetto State Armory, praised its inventory, and tried to offer it business.

Palmetto State Armory has openly embraced far-right ideology. In 2020, it began marketing its products using imagery and language associated with the “boogaloo,” slang for racist violence and even a call for full-on race war. It has also come to mean war to topple the government.

The Jacksonville shooter shouldn’t have been able to buy the guns in the first place. He was held in Florida state custody in 2017 for mental health issues, disqualifying him from owning a gun under a statute called the Baker Act.

With so many eyeballs on Trump, Palmetto State Armory would never have gotten away with selling him a gun. But as Philadephia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch pointed out, the store “could sell an AR-15 to a young, mentally troubled white supremacist.”