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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.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 19, 2017 16 Comments
President Trump has faced many opponents during his quest for the White House and the early days of his administration. However, no group seems to be as powerful as the judiciary when it comes to gutting his policies. Legal Insurrection readers will recall that one of Trump's first acts as President was signing the executive order to move forward with the Dakota Access and Keystone Pipelines. The good news is that the Dakota Access Pipeline began shipping oil on June 1.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 18, 2017 14 Comments
As we approach the 150 day mark for President Donald Trump's first term, I thought in might be useful to have a retrospective post about how the American press has presented his record, outside of Twitter, Russia and Comey hearings...and highlight some of his underreported victories. Professor Jacobson so noted, the news cycle is essentially over for the assassination attempt on the Republican congressional baseball team. To be sure, if the Democratic congressional representatives had been targeted (and the assassin found with a list of Democratic targets in his pocket), this would have been "top of the fold" for many more weeks to come.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 16, 2017 16 Comments
Legal Insurrection readers may remember my post on a launch of a California recall effort to remove state Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), who voted for the $52 billion road repair package, paid for by fuel taxes and registration fees, just four months after he took office. Unhappy that their super-majority status is in jeopardy, Democratic politicians in Sacramento inserted language into a bill for a veteran's cemetery that would kick a recall vote into the next general election.
Over impassioned objections from GOP lawmakers, California Democrats on Thursday used a budget maneuver to help out a freshman colleague, Sen. Josh Newman, who faces an ugly recall battle in Southern California after voting for increasing the state’s gas tax six months after he was elected.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 13, 2017 41 Comments
I recently noted there was a bizarre rendition of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Julius Caesar, in which the title character resembled President Donald Trump. What I did not report at the time is that I called my banking institution of 19 years, Bank of America, and warned them that their continued sponsorship of this travesty would cost them my long-term business. Clearly, I wasn't the only one either, as the corporation and another sponsor have cut ties to the New York City theater that produced the play.
Delta Airlines and Bank of America pulled out of their sponsorship of New York’s Public Theater on Sunday over a production of “Julius Caesar” that reimagines the main character as President Trump.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 13, 2017 15 Comments
This weekend, I recounted the astonishing immaturity of California's junior U.S. Senator Kamala Harris during several hearings in which she participated. However, our state's senior U.S. Senator, Dianne Feinstein, may be attempting to salvage some of California's former reputation of producing serious politicians. Feinstein recently stated that perhaps the time has come to look into Comey’s testimony that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch asked him to minimize the nature of his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 12, 2017 127 Comments
Because of my Legal Insurrection coverage of climate change, in the wake of the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, I was asked directly: Exactly how much climate science does President Trump understand. Like any true science, climatology is filled with highly technical terms, professional jargon, complex mathematics, and a myriad of other aspects that are challenging to understand and master. For example, a talk by Dr. William Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics at Princeton University, shows the discussion included the variability of carbon dioxide levels through history and flaws in the computer models used related to lack of cloud cover influence on temperature.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 10, 2017 8 Comments
The American media's obsession with James Comey has distracted them from covering important Trump Administration actions (i.e., the appointment of 11 conservative judges). President Trump has used Twitter and pressers like Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov used dog treats... to evoke a specific response. These diversions keep the "professional journalists" from noticing how rapidly and effectively Obama era policies have been ended. Friday's press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is a great example.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 09, 2017 23 Comments
Legal Insurrection readers may have noticed that I sometimes refer to President Donald Trump as "Master of the Unexpected." That is a term of endearment among Trump's fans who also love the 1963 epic, Cleopatra, as it refers to quote about Julius Caesar and his tactic that led to a victory over the Egyptian army. However, a New York theater group has taken that analogy to a much darker level.
Shakespeare in the Park, an annual summer program by The Public Theater that puts on plays by William Shakespeare in Central Park, kicked off May 23 with a performance of Julius Caesar.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 04, 2017 24 Comments
California's Bay Area is is a technological capital of this country, where thousands of highly trained computer and engineering professions strive to created the latest digital and mechanized wonders. In a move so rich with irony that the Russians are looking for mining rights, San Francisco politicians are mulling a ban on one of the most recent creations: Delivery robots.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 02, 2017 32 Comments
I have been involved in the fight against climate alarmists and their economy crushing policies since 2009 when I reported on the flaws in the climate models during an informative lecture given in San Diego. Eight years later, I nervously awaited the announcement on the Paris Climate Accord, as I wasn't certain that President Donald Trump would follow through on his promise to withdraw because of the intense pressure he was under. But withdraw he did, with a historic address that should be on list of best presidential speeches in American history.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 31, 2017 10 Comments
America recently marked the 40th anniversary of the debut of the blockbuster movie, Star Wars. In 1983, in homage to the movie's popularity, Ronald Reagan's "Strategic Defense Initiative" was rechristened "Star Wars". While the original goal of the program was to build a network of ground-based and space-based systems to shield the country from a massive intercontinental ballistic missile attack, Reagan's successors have scaled back on his original plans substantially. Since President Donald Trump took office, North Korea has launched 9 separate test ballistic missiles, with the goal of developing one that could reach the United States with a nuclear payload.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 29, 2017 13 Comments
While President Trump was working to have the Muslim nations drive out terrorists and negotiating to have NATO nations pay-up for their defense, First Lady Melania Trump was dazzling the world with grace, class, and dignity. The First Lady has not yet moved into the White House, so seeing her in formal venues has been rare until now. However, if the past 9 days have been any indication, Americans will soon be under the spell of President Trump's beautiful wife.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 28, 2017 13 Comments
Last week, I reported that Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers had decapitated the brutal El Salvadoran gang MS13 in Southern California after they arrested more than 40 members using racketeering statutes. This week, they followed it up with a series of raids that brought in 188 illegal immigrants, most of whom were connected with crime in this region.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 28, 2017 2 Comments
Egypt has launched an air assault on terror training camps in Libya, following the deadly bus attack that claimed the lives of over two dozen Coptic Christian men, women and children.
On Friday, Egyptian fighter jets struck eastern Libya just hours after a shooting that killed 29 and wounded 24 in the southern Egyptian province of Minya when masked militants boarded vehicles en route to a monastery and opened fire at close range. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest directed at Egypt's increasingly embattled Christian minority following two church bombings last month that killed more than 45, also claimed by the group.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 28, 2017 21 Comments
President Donald Trump concluded his first trip abroad as Commander-in-Chief with a speech at the Sigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily before returning to Washington, D.C., saying that his the nine-day international tour was a home run.
“But we have been gone for close to nine days. This will be nine days. And I think we hit a home run no matter where we are,” Trump said in Italy. ...The president is heading back to Washington, D.C. following a trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy, and Belgium. After meeting with the Pope, Trump traveled to Brussels for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit and concluded his trip in Sicily at the G7 summit.
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