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Author: Leslie Eastman

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Leslie Eastman

I am an Environmental Health and Safety Professional, as well as a science/technical writer for a variety of news and professional publications. I have been a citizen activist since 2009, and am one of the co-founders of the San Diego-based group, Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition.

Late in October, California Governor Jerry Brown threatened to sue the administration of President Donald Trump for implementation of environmental policies focused more on real pollutants (e.g., heavy metals) and less on contrived ones (e.g., carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion. I noted Brown would be taking a European "climate change" tour that would include a stop at the Vatican. His presentation at the seat of the Catholic Church focused on climate, alright...the political one.

A few years ago, West Africa experienced an Ebola outbreak, killing almost 12,000 people. The Red Cross was one international organization that traveled to the continent to supposedly help the countries fight the disease and provide proper care to the sick. Three years later, it seems that the Ebola virus isn't the only parasite sucking the life out of Africans.
Fraud by Red Cross workers and others wasted at least $6 million meant to fight the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the organization confirmed Saturday. The revelations follow an internal investigation of how the organization handled more than $124 million during the 2014-2016 epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Last night, my inbox was filled with how the latest "National Climate Assessment" released by the administration counters what President Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt have said about the questionable assertions about man-made climate change and the policies that are derived from the ludicrous theories. The following muck from The Washington Post is a great example of the elite media spinning a narrative that is demonstrably false in scientific terms but that fits their politically-motivated agenda:

We have been following the efforts to contain the outbreak of Hepatitis A in California. Hepatitis A virus attacks the liver, causing yellowing of the skin or eyes, diarrhea, nausea, stomach pain and fatigue. It extreme cases, it can be fatal. The pathogen is often spread through person-to-person contact and consumption of food or water contaminated with fecal matter. The fears of public health officials that the disease would spread to other states seem to have been realized, as 2 cases linked to the San Diego outbreak have been treated in Colorado.
An outbreak of hepatitis A in Southern California raised concern among Colorado health officials after two homeless people who apparently contracted the disease in San Diego were treated here.

President Trump's eraser and Twitter feed seem to be more effective that Obama's pen and phone. In the last days of his insipid administration, the former president created the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah with a stroke of his pen, claiming thousands of square acres of land for the federal government. Now, President Trump indicates that he is going to trim back the size of the land grab.
President Trump on Friday told Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah that he will shrink the size of Bears Ears National Monument, a 1.35 million-acre piece of land former President Obama designated as a national monument just before leaving office.

After a week of news treats, President Trump had some Halloween fun with the children of the press corps.
Mr. Trump invited children of the White House press corps to the Oval Office in their costumes to meet him and pose for pictures during the annual Halloween festivities at the White House Friday. As the kids dressed as Darth Vader, a unicorn and Princess Leia gathered around the Resolute Desk for a photo with the president, Mr. Trump teased some of their journalist parents who were in attendance. “I cannot believe the media produced such beautiful children,” the president said to laughter. “How the media did this, I don’t know.”

It is difficult to keep track of all the #WINNING that I enjoyed this past week, between the implosion of RussiaGate and the IRS apology to Tea Party groups. Personally, I am savoring President Trump's efforts to reverse course on Obama's toxic domestic and foreign policies. Trump's regulatory rollbacks, as well as his nixing of the Paris Climate Accord and EPA head Scott Pruitt's ending the "Clean Power Plan", has already helped fuel the American economic engine.

The last time I reported on eco-activist billionaire Tom Steyer in 2015, investigators had issued a detailed report that showed extensive behind-the-scenes coordination between Obama's White House staff, aides to as many as 12 governors, and officials at multiple arms of Steyer’s network of political and policy group to push the climate-change agenda. Given President Trump's regulation-gutting and EPA chief Scott Pruitt's rollback of progressive clean-power policies (at no small risk to himself), one can presume that Steyer isn't enjoying the same level of influence that he once had under Obama.

It would be difficult to imagine a more wretched hive of incompetence and boobery than the California Republican Party leadership. From the amazing implosion of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) as a politician and human being, the initial support of a tax-raising proposition that was only rescinded after the rise of the Tea Party, and the continued lack of effective push-back against progressive shenanigans, California has become a one-party state (where our choices range from Midnight Blue to YInMn Blue in key, state-wide elections).

Reports are surfacing of another scientific group revising data to conform to a pre-determined result. This time, the studies affected center on glyphosate, an important ingredient in Roundup weed killer. In fact, the State of California plans to force the manufacturer to label the popular product as a carcinogen.
Regulators in California took a pivotal step on Monday toward becoming the first state to require the popular weed killer Roundup to come with a label warning that it's known to cause cancer.

The Melania Trump body double hoax and the politicization of President Trump's phone call to the widow of a fallen soldier has distracted from some important news. ISIS has now been ejected from its stronghold in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Evidence has been revealed that show President Barack Obama’s administration covered for failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her family on a few occasions, including the connection to a Russian uranium deal.