Cooper's Eye on the Left: When the left goes low...

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in 2004.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in 2004.

What's in a name?

If you're on the left, you'd be against anyone President Donald Trump nominated to be a Supreme Court justice. So it was no surprise that late night show comedian Stephen Colbert had something negative to say about Judge Brett Kavanaugh. But it was the juvenile humor he used that seemed so lame.

"Now, I don't know much about Kavanaugh," he said, "but I'm skeptical because his name is Brett. That sounds less like a Supreme Court justice and more like a waiter at a Ruby Tuesday's. 'Hey everybody, I'm Brett, I'll be your Supreme Court justice tonight. Before you sit down, let me just clear away these rights for you.'"

He may have been just been following the lead of pro-choice organization NARAL, which tweeted, "We'll be damned if we're going to let five men - including some frat boy named Brett - strip us of our hard-won bodily autonomy and reproductive rights."

Colbert's joke might have been a little funnier, though, had it not been uttered by a man whose name is pronounced "Cole-bear" now that he is in Manhattan but was pronounced "Coal-bert" when he lived in South Carolina.

Tax dollars support this school

The University of Kansas, in the name of art that is protesting President Donald Trump, has been flying a defaced American flag splattered with black paint.

The art installation by the Spencer Museum of Art, called "Pledges of Allegiance," also has a sock in the bottom right hand corner of the flag. Artist Josephine Meckseper said the flag is supposed to represent the illegal immigrant children who cross into the U.S. across its southwestern border.

"The flag is a collage of an American flag and one of my dripped paintings which resembles the contours of the United States," Meckseper said in a Creative Time website post. "I divided the shape of the country in two for the flag design to reflect a deeply polarized country in which a president has openly bragged about harassing women and is withdrawing from the Kyoto protocol and U.N. Human Rights Council."

Many people heaped scorn on the taxpayer-funded school to allow such a display.

"As a U.S. Navy veteran and student at the University of Kansas currently seeking my master's degree, I find the 'artwork' that currently flies at Spooner Hall heinous and abhorrent," one student said.

"Words cannot even begin to describe how big of an embarrassment this is," the University of Kansas College Republicans tweeted.

"No, this isn't 'art'," U.S. Rep. Robert Marshall, R-Kan., tweeted, "this is an embarrassment. Shame on KU, a public university, for flying this desecrated American flag over their campus."

Late last week, the flag was relocated.

When the money stops ... what?

Michael Tubbs, the 27-year-old mayor of financially strapped, crime-ridden Stockton, Calif., is trying something new. He's paying people not to commit crimes.

One of several new giveaway projects the city is trying, the plan would pay those "most likely to commit a violent crime" up to $1,000 a month. In addition, $500 checks would be given monthly to low-income residents, and eligible public high school graduates would get $1,000 college scholarships.

"The majority of people are actually smart and rational," Tubbs said last week at the Sacramento Press Club. "You trust folks; you give folks money; nine times out of 10 they're not going to do any harm."

All three giveaways are funded by private donations, and all three are pilot programs, meaning they'll have an ending date. If they're successful, he'll try to convince taxpayers of their worthiness.

Those who will be paid not to offend will have had to already have served their time, will have to attend a six-month program with daily check-ins with a case manager, will have to get a job and will have to obtain a driver's license.

The low-income residents can spend their money on anything.

We'll be anxious to hear what transpires.

Can't tell the truth here

Democrat Tedra Cobb, the challenger for the seat currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik in New York's 21st Congressional District, was caught on video last week basically saying she'd have to lie to be elected.

When quizzed by a group of young, liberal enthusiasts on the subject of a ban on certain firearms, she said she supported a ban but couldn't say so publicly over fear of losing the election.

"When I was at this thing today," Cobb said on the video, "it was the first table I was at, a woman said, 'How do you feel about assault rifles?' And I said they should be banned. And I said, you know, people were getting up to go, to go get their lunch because it was a buffet, and I just said to her, I want you to know, Cindy, I cannot say that."

When her listeners pushed back, she said favoring a gun ban would be a ticket to losing.

"And [Cindy] said, 'Well, I want you to' and I said, 'I won't win,'" Cobb said. "I said Moms Demand [Action] says , and Tricia Pleau said, 'Do not say that you want an assault rifle ban because you will not win.'"

Stefanik, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, remains popular in her district. Her New York is not New York City but well north of it and much more conservative than the Big Apple.

As for Cobb, 21st District voters know now.

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