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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 May 24, 2017 34 Comments
The last time we ran an "insanity check" on the state of California, our state's legislators were laying out plans for a single-payer healthcare system. Subsequently, the state's money crunchers processed the numbers and the price tag is twice the state's annual budget!
Creating a single-payer health care system in California would cost $400 billion a year — including $200 billion in new tax revenue, according to an analysis of legislation released Monday by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 23, 2017 44 Comments
The theory of "consensus science reliability" seems to have taken another hit, as a new report has been released that asserts government-based dietary fat guidelines "have no evidence base". Publishing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Dr Zoë Harcombe of the Institute of Clinical Exercise and Health Science of the University of the West of Scotland researched both the origins and the results of following the dietary fat guidelines that have prevailed in the US and the United Kingdom for almost 40 years. The evidence provides no support for the assertion that low-fat diets are healthier, especially as the incidences of obesity and diabetes have escalated dramatically during the same four decades of the guidelines' implementation.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 21, 2017 17 Comments
We recently reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to target the nation's law enforcement efforts on the barbaric and brutal El Salvadoran gang, MS13. While the elite media has been attempting to stage a coup-d'-press, it has nearly ignored significant developments that highlight exactly how effective President Donald Trump's administration has been.  For example, Sessions' plans were initiated during an early morning sweep of MS13 gangsters that hit its leadership.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 20, 2017 20 Comments
The last time we checked in on Colorado after it legalized marijuana, the intoxicant was raking in $1.3 billion worth of sales for the state. Yet, as predicted, there have been some unintended consequences of decriminalizing recreational marijuana use. Recently, the residents of Durango have noticed a change in the type of visitors the lovely Colorado resort town attracts.
The town suddenly became a haven for recreational pot users, drawing in transients, panhandlers and a large number of homeless drug addicts, according to officials and business owners. Many are coming from New Mexico, Arizona and even New York.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 19, 2017 23 Comments
When it comes to blocking President Donald Trump's plans for the Border Wall, the Democratic Party has displayed imagination, creativity, and enthusiasm rarely surpassed in the annals of human history.
Democrats opposed border wall funding in the latest government spending debate and the White House eventually backed off of its demand to secure the money this month. When the funding fight comes up again in September, Democrats are still likely to deem it a non-starter in negotiations. "I have said repeatedly and consistently, I will not support an omnibus that includes funding for a wall; not going to do it," said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-New York, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, at a recent press conference.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 19, 2017 19 Comments
The last time we checked on Crazy California, many of its taxpayers were rebelling against the legislature-created gas tax and were mounting a recall challenge against one of the Democrats who made that hike possible. During a speech in Orange County earlier this month, and in response to taxpayers angered by the massive increase and those who are supporting the recall of State Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, Governor Jerry Brown had this to say (hat tip, conservative pundit Kira Davis):
“The freeloaders — I’ve had enough of them,” Brown said, adding that the approved tax and fee hikes bring those charges to the level they were 30 years ago if adjusted for inflation. “They have a president that doesn’t tell the truth and they’re following suit.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 16, 2017 20 Comments
By now, every Legal Insurrection reader will likely have been exposed to a deluge of media related to the Washington Post's assertions about President Donald Trump disclosing highly classified information in his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador. However, the intense media focus on the White House has meant substantially less ink, electrons and time have been spent covering two, significant class action lawsuits against the Democratic National Committee: 1) It's shenanigans during the primary to weigh the nomination in Hillary Clinton's favor. 2) Failure to pay its campaign workers for overtime. I was registered as a Democrat for a significant portion of the primary season, and voted for Bernie Sanders in the California primary. So, I thought I would spend a little time on each of these cases.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 14, 2017 6 Comments
Upon taking the oath of office a few days ago, South Korea's new president, Moon Jae-in, indicated the he is willing to visit the nuclear-armed North.
Moon, who was declared the winner on Tuesday of the presidential election, said he will "sincerely negotiate" with the United States, South Korea's chief ally, and China, South Korea's top trading partner, over the contentious deployment of the US anti-missile system THAAD.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 13, 2017 20 Comments
Back in 2011, as that season's presidential pandering was getting revved up, the President Obama said we can't drill our way out of energy problems.
President Obama called for the elimination of billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks Friday, while stressing that the United States can’t drill its way out of high gas prices. “We can’t just drill our way out of the problem,” Obama said during an energy policy speech in Indiana Friday.
I hate to admit it: Obama is right. We didn't drill our way out, we fracked our way to a fuel surplus. There has been so much winning recently that OPEC is now complaining.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 13, 2017 11 Comments
The last time Legal Insurrection visited the Land of the Nile, Pope Francis was refusing to use an armored car during his visit to Egypt. Fortunately, one was not needed, and the Holy Father must have made quite an impression, especially after meeting with Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt's President and proponent of an Islamic Reformation. To start with, a noted Egyptian Islamic "scholar" has been canned from his television show and faces a trial after calling Christians "infidels".
Salem Abdel-Galeel, television show host and a former deputy minister at the Ministry of Religious Endowments, is set to face trial for contempt of religion after describing Christians as non-believers.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 13, 2017 30 Comments
In the wake of President Donald Trump's election, a big can of crazy has been opened and our state's political leaders have all taken a big swig then passed it around. I just noted that our junior U.S. Senator, Kamala Harris, recently offered profanity-infused political commentary more worthy of a late night comedy show. Now it is being reported by the Washington Free Beacon that the a Congresswoman representing the area around Silicon Valley has revealed her true feelings about a the rest of the nation.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 11, 2017 22 Comments
President Trump has scored significant successes undoing the toxic eco-activist legacy of his predecessor, including the executive orders moving the signing of Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines forward. However, it seems that he cannot rely on certain establishment Republicans to continue his efforts. Before reading this piece further, pause for a moment and ask yourself which 3 GOP Senators would, when given a chance to vote to repeal Obama's drilling rules, would just say "NO".

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 10, 2017 9 Comments
Hanford Nuclear Reservation made plutonium for nuclear weapons for decades and is now the largest depository of radioactive defense waste that must be cleaned. There was an emergency situation at this site in Washington state after a tunnel full of highly contaminated materials collapsed.
Officials say a collapsed patch of ground above the tunnel was larger than first believed. The U.S. Department of Energy said the collapse covered about 400 square feet (37.1 square meters) instead of the 16 square feet (1.4 square meters) first reported.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 10, 2017 21 Comments
It is being reported that President Donald Trump is delaying a decision on withdrawing from the landmark Paris climate accord until after the conclusion of a key international meeting.
"Trump had originally aimed to announce his intentions before traveling to the summit, held in Sicily at the end of this month. Instead, he will wait until after the G7 to make a decision, according to White House press secretary Sean Spicer. I think it's simply a sign that the President wants to continue to meet with his team," Spicer told reporters at the White House.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 09, 2017 17 Comments
I always suspected that the junior Senator from California would make a very memorable addition to that august body. Little did I realize she would adopt an edgy, late-night comedy approach to political analysis upon assuming Barbara Boxer's former seat.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) dropped the “f-bomb” while discussing the GOP's ObamaCare repeal and replacement plan at a public event in San Francisco over the weekend.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 09, 2017 25 Comments
Life at the current Environmental Protection Agency now resembles an episode of "The Apprentice", the iconic reality show once hosted by President Donald Trump. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt once battled the agency he now leads and argued its scientists often failed to properly assess the fiscal impact relative to actual risk related to implementing new regulations on businesses. As a result of his leadership, half of the Science Advisory Board has been dismissed.
Deborah L. Swackhamer, chairwoman of the Board of Scientific Counselors, confirmed Monday that nine of the 18 outside experts on her panel will not serve a second three-year term. The affected board members' terms expired April 30.
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