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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 January 04, 2017 39 Comments
During the election cycle, the Clinton Foundation and its funding were a significant issue: After the election, reports were that the donations and the speaking fees were drying up. Perhaps that is why The New York Posts now notes that former President Bill Clinton is offering to match contributions to the foundation in an email plea?

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 01, 2017 43 Comments
I thought safety pins were the most ludicrous symbol of political protesting ever used. However, that stupidity has been completely surpassed by the Pussy-Hat. Let me give you a little background on the latest social justice buffoonery. As savvy Legal Insurrection readers may be aware, a "Million Women March" is being planned in conjunction with Donald Trump's presidential inauguration festivities. It has wisely been rebranded "Women's March on Washington" (as I suspect the final count will be slightly shy of 1,000,000 participants).

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 31, 2016 3 Comments
As the Christmas season concludes, and I look back on 2016, I have one thought: It's good that Halloween is my favorite holiday, as I seem to like scary things. It sure has come in handy when covering this year's cornucopia of news drama. I was delighted to see my post, Hillary Clinton’s Vulgarity Makes Trump Look Like Shakespeare, made the Top 10 List of Most Viewed Posts of 2016. Looking back, these are the other 5 posts that I was happy to be able to share with Legal Insurrection readers.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 30, 2016 23 Comments
A report in the Washington Examiner featuring a new law about to go into effect in California is causing quite a stir. Contributor Travis Allen reports that starting Sunday, prostitution by minors will be legal in the Golden State.
SB 1322 bars law enforcement from arresting sex workers who are under the age of 18 for soliciting or engaging in prostitution, or loitering with the intent to do so. So teenage girls (and boys) in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 29, 2016 8 Comments
Legal Insurrection fans probably despair of California, given the inanity of our politicians and the desire of some of our citizens to leave the Union. However, I would like to share a touching story of patriotism that may redeem our state, slightly. Videographer Tom Baldwin reports that Amador Varsity Football, from a small California town outside Sacramento called Sutter Creek, had a game against Lincoln High in San Francisco. However, the friends and family of the visiting team noticed something was amiss prior to kickoff.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 29, 2016 3 Comments
As Kemberlee Kaye so eloquently demonstrated in her post, This Christmas, few relationships are as defining as one between a mother a child. Apparently the loss of her child yesterday was more than legendary actress Debbie Reynolds could bear. She passed away of a stroke, less than 48 hours after her daughter Carrie Fisher died from a heart attack.
Debbie Reynolds -- who rose to stardom in "Singin' in the Rain" and quickly became a staple among Hollywood royalty -- died Wednesday as a result of a stroke, TMZ has learned ... just one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher passed away ... this according to her son Todd.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 27, 2016 7 Comments
I have a sad update to the post on Rogue One that published yesterday. Carrie Fisher, our American Princess of Science Fiction, passed away this morning after suffering a heart attack on Friday.
Carrie Fisher, who rose to fame as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" films and later endured drug addiction before going on to tell her story as a best-selling author, died on Tuesday aged 60, her family said. ...The daughter of actor Debbie Reynolds and the late singer Eddie Fisher had been returning from England where she was shooting the third season of the British sitcom "Catastrophe."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 27, 2016 14 Comments
While progressives decry fossil fuel use as the source of our climate change woes, Mother Nature may be presenting us a more serious, immediate and real threat. Most Americans are familiar with our supervolcano in Yellowstone. However, there is one in Italy that shows signs of potential activity.
A massive supervolcano under the city of Naples, Italy, is showing signs of life again, prompting concern among some scientists. The Campi Flegrei, Italian for "burning fields," that make up the vocano's crater, or caldera, have been full of boiling mud, steam, and even smaller volcanoes for centuries. The people of ancient Rome believed the area to be the home of the Roman god of fire and volcanoes, Vulcan. Today, the fields are a popular tourist destination. But the caldera has been showing signs of an explosive awakening since 2012, and a new study indicates that a destructive eruption of the volcano could be coming soon.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 27, 2016 13 Comments
California's notorious progressive pixie, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, is exiting Congress with the dignity we have come to expect from this Golden State representative. Apparently oblivious to the constant press attention, fake and otherwise, that President Donald Trump has been accorded since taking his ride down the escalator at Trump Tower in the summer of 2015, Boxer demands that the mainstream media hold him accountable once he enters the Oval Office.
Going forward, I intend to remain very involved in the issues we face, and like all your readers, I will rely on the work you do every single day. As we march into uncharted territory with a new president-elect who has never held elected office — and who at times has threatened the media — the role of the free press is more important than ever.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 26, 2016 28 Comments
We joined millions of other Americans this Christmas season by heading to the movie theaters. Our target: Rogue One, A Star Wars Story! This is the official spoiler alert, so if you haven't seen the film and want to retain the suspense, please read no further than this. I don't give away much, but I don't want to ruin anyone's cinematic fun, either.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 25, 2016 29 Comments
There has been much bellyaching by liberal white women that 53% of us voted for Donald Trump in November presidential election. After learning of this statistic, Sa'iyda Shabazz writes a challenge letter to her white friends in The Mary Sue:
So, you voted for Trump. You don’t have to admit it, I know you did. Granted, I think the fact that some of you won’t admit it is telling. Some of you have said that you have stayed silent because you didn’t want to get dragged for voting for him.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 25, 2016 1 Comment
I want to wish Legal Insurrection readers a very Merry Christmas (as well as Happy Chanukah, which begins December 24). My family decided to begin this holiday season with a trip to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley. Given how closely my family followed this year's election, it seemed a grand way to conclude a crazy political year.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 23, 2016 20 Comments
Kemberlee recently noted that President-elect Trump tweeted costs for plans to build a new Air Force One were “out of control” and that the order should be cancelled. File Trump's tweet under "Opening Negotiations".
The head of Boeing is saying he promised President-elect Donald Trump that the manufacturer would complete the Air Force One project for less than the $4 billion the president-elect had claimed it would cost.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 23, 2016 28 Comments
The most valuable lesson to be had in 2016 may be that tying your firm's products to politics is a bad business model. The latest person to learn this lesson is a Maine propane distributor who recently refused to sell gas to Trump voters.
If you call Turner LP Gas in Skowhegan, you get a message from owner Michael Turner: “If you voted for Donald Trump for president, I will no longer be delivering your gas,” it says. “Please find someone else.” Reached on Friday night, Turner said he recorded the message on Election Day. After media learned of it earlier that day, he said he had 50 voicemails. Most of them were from angry Trump supporters, but he said one of four were supportive.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 22, 2016 25 Comments
I recently blogged that the Yes, Californa secession campaign is being run by a 30-year-old American who lives and works in a city on the edge of Siberia. Now, even before all the required signatures for the ballot measure have been collected, the chief secessionist says that a California embassy has opened in Moscow, Russia.
California gained an embassy in Russia last weekend, at least in the eyes of those who have promised to seek a statewide vote on secession, nicknamed "Calexit," in 2018.
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