Cooper's Eye on the Left: Kerry's climate comparison

Former Secretary of State John Kerry thought jailed former NFL player O.J. Simpson's plight would make a proper metaphor for President Donald Trump pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry thought jailed former NFL player O.J. Simpson's plight would make a proper metaphor for President Donald Trump pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord.

Squeezing 'The Juice'

Former Secretary of State John Kerry, the man who negotiated the United States into the flawed Paris climate agreement, apparently didn't get called quickly enough when President Donald Trump said he would pull the country out of the nonbinding agreement. When he was sought out by the media, all the breathless, outlandish, apoplectic statements already had been made.

Former Vice President Al Gore, the environmentalist in chief wannabe, compared the decision to something out of "the book of Revelation." He did have to admit, though, the Paris deal, in actuality, would not stop global warming.

California Gov. Jerry Brown was so concerned about a potential "disaster" that he flew to China to sign a new agreement that pledges to reduce carbon emissions.

But Kerry? Well, he brought up poor ol' O.J. Simpson, the accused double murderer who was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend but is now serving 33 years in a medium security prison for conspiracy, burglary, robbery, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon.

"He's going to go out and find a better deal?" he said of Trump on "Meet the Press." "That's like O.J. Simpson saying he is going to go out and find the real killer. Everybody knows he isn't going to do that because he doesn't believe in it."

Georgia socialists-in-training

Teach your young freshmen-to-be heading off to the University of Georgia this fall to think, or they may wind up in the Young Democratic Socialists organization, an actual registered student group, which recently suggested House Republicans "should be guillotined."

The response from the group came as a social media response to the suggestion by an Art Institute of Washington professor that the Republicans "should be lined up and shot," according to Campus Reform.

Such thinking continues the intolerance of the left for anything that doesn't fit their particular worldview.

Just so the young Bulldogs-to-be will understand, the Young Democratic Socialists describe their mission as one of training, empowering and organizing "youth to run effective campaigns that result in tangible social and political victories and that develop leaders for the socialist movement."

The organization constitution adds, "We want to build a community of friendship and support for passionate and conscientious students.

With friendship like that

Crouching tiger, hidden CGI

People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was recently exposed in a scheme in which the organization sought to plant on YouTube a video of a cat created with computer generation imagery being abused in hopes the video would generate sympathy. Only the cat wouldn't be revealed to be fake until, perhaps, much later.

Mashable, a group pitched by a public relations group retained by PETA to use the video, turned the tables and exposed the animal rights organization for its chicanery.

"[G]iven the nature of the effort and the scourge of misinformation in 2017 - combined with the fact that the video is truly bizarre and gross - we're making this fake campaign public," the website wrote.

A miffed PETA responded that Mashable just "didn't like" the idea, so it launched the video on its website last week as a clearly labelled parody "so there would be no confusion."

The purpose, PETA officials said, was to make people think of the abuse big cats receive.

"Abuse is abuse, whether the animal being smacked is a house cat or a tiger," PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange said. "PETA's video illustrates why not to buy a ticket to a circus that uses animals - or exploit a live animal for a TV show or movie."

Fake news is fake news, Mashable said. It's "wrong and irresponsible."

Why Johnny can't do math

A recently created online course that teaches high school math teachers how to incorporate "social justice" into their classes has been revamped after being exposed by Campus Reform.

The course, the revelation of which caused public outrage, was called "Teaching Social Justice Through Secondary Mathematics." It instructed teachers how to create lesson plans that would teach their children about privilege, racism, and inequality using concepts like geometry and ratios.

Blending of social justice and math, the course designed by Teach for America and offered by Edx, would "help students realize the power and meaning of both the data and social justice concerns. Teachers also were introduced to the "intersectional theory," which states "math has been used as a dehumanizing tool" for centuries and can be used as a "tool of oppression."

Not surprisingly, the vice president of communications for Teach for America, praised the course but admitted its exposure forced the changes to avoid the appearance of political bias.

"While we believe the content and approach of the course is strong, we modified language that was subject to politicization and interpretation," Danielle Montoya said. "Teach For America's work transcends political ideology, and we want to be absolutely clear on that. As the course's goal is to strengthen educators' tools and competencies to make math education rigorous and relatable, we made adjustments to the title and language to ensure greater consistency with our intent."

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