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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 February 04, 2017 17 Comments
The political sailing has not been smooth for many of President Trump's nominees, and the process of approving Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency is no exception. After being a target of one of the many Democratic Senate committee boycotts, Pruit cleared the log-jam:
Senate Republicans pressed forward on Thursday with the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, suspending the Environment and Public Works Committee’s rules to approve the cabinet pick despite a Democratic boycott.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 03, 2017 25 Comments
The smoke is clearing from the violent demonstration at University of California - Berkeley, and reports of attacks on conservative students who were planning to hear Breitbart editor Yiannopoulos are finding their way into social media. For example, the pepper-spraying on a young woman wearing a Make Bitcoin Great Again cap.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 02, 2017 40 Comments
I can forgive Legal Insurrection fans who think that Californians have lost their collective minds. 1) We have a group openly promoting secession and a state government that approved a #CalExit petition effort. 2) A senior politician seriously suggested the state withhold transfer of funds to the federal government. 3) Our representatives are mulling over a third gender option for identity documentation. Furthermore, in response to President Trump’s move to end sanctuary cities, our government officials are working to declare California a “Sanctuary State”.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 01, 2017 57 Comments
Conservative activist and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak at University of California - Berkeley on Wednesday evening. However, his event was cancelled and massive protests and violent demonstrations broke out on campus instead.
The Breitbart News editor [Milo Yiannopoulos] was set to deliver a speech inside a UC Berkeley campus building but hundreds of protesters began throwing fireworks and pulling down the metal barricades police set up to keep people from rushing into the building. Windows were smashed and fires were set outside the building as masked protesters stormed it.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 30, 2017 54 Comments
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was fired by President Donald Trump after she instructed the Department of Justice not to defend the recently signed executive order issuing a moratorium on immigration from seven countries presenting significant terror threats.
Taking action in an escalating crisis for his 10-day-old administration, Mr. Trump declared that Sally Q. Yates had “betrayed” the administration, the White House said in a statement. The president appointed Dana J. Boente, United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to serve as acting attorney general until Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is confirmed.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 30, 2017 46 Comments
The showdown over sanctuary city policies between California and the Trump administration continues to escalate. After President Trump signed an executive order reinforcing current immigration regulations, politicians in our state's government opted to counter that order by exploring ways to protect the non-citizens who are already here.
The cities and counties Trump is targeting have many tools to strike back. Among the most potent are high court decisions that have interpreted financial threats like the one Trump is now making as an unlawful intrusion on state’s rights.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 29, 2017 17 Comments
California lawmakers have dived deeper in the pool of progressivism, apparently to swim away from the red states responsible for the election of Donald Trump as President. Between bitterly threatening to build our own satellites and clinging to sanctuary city policies, state lawmakers are now weighing a fun, new revision to state identification cards: A third gender option.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 28, 2017 25 Comments
Mental health scientists will surely add a new term the next time they gather: Trumpophobia, the fear of all things pertaining to America's new president. Trumpophobia is not confined to the usual set of social justice warriors, either. Supposedly reasoned and experienced scientists have become unhinged over the past week, as Trump vigorously began fulfilling campaign promises.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 28, 2017 24 Comments
While President Trump has spent the week undoing many of Barack Obama's executive orders and policies, I have been wondering about Michelle Obama's signature program: Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) Legal Insurrection readers may recall some of the questionable highlights related to HHFKA as it has been implemented over the past eight years.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 28, 2017 64 Comments
2018 is going to be a big election year for California. Not only do we get to pick a new governor, but we may get a chance to vote to secede from the United States of America as well. #CalExit, a #Brexit inspired movement in which California would secede from the union, has cleared an important hurdle and a secession measure would be on our 2018 ballot. I have previously reported that leader of Yes California (the organized, supposedly San Diego-based effort for this movement) is an American who lives in Russia and runs the independence campaign from there. Louis Marinelli has now gotten approval from California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to begin collecting signatures begin gathering signatures to place secession on the California ballot.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 26, 2017 25 Comments
Legal Insurrection readers will recall that during its last few hours, the Obama administration sent $221 million to the Palestinian Authority that GOP members of Congress had been blocking. Team Trump has now frozen those monies.
The Trump administration has informed the Palestinian Authority that it is freezing the transfer of $221 million which was quietly authorized by the Obama administration in its final hours on January 20, a senior Palestinian source has told The Times of Israel.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 26, 2017 8 Comments
Last summer, I reported that Food and Drug Administration rules covering e-cigarettes and adopted early in the Obama presidency were killing the related American industry. The manufacturer, distribution and retail sales of e-cigarettes (which vaporizes nicotine-infused solutions that have only traces of some of the 60-plus carcinogens found in cigarette smoke), is worth an estimated $3.7 billion last year. In San Diego alone, e-cigarette firms employ hundreds of Californians in productive, middle-class positions, and generate quite a bit of tax revenue for the state as well.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 25, 2017 17 Comments
Over the course of the general election campaign, Hollywood's celebrities donated money, time, and sometimes questionable talent to elect Hillary Clinton as President. After Donald Trump's victory, there were a stream of celebrity videos deriding the electoral college, trying to sway electors from formalizing the Nov. 8th results, patting themselves on the back for surviving, and dramatically swearing the Oath to the U.S. Constitution. All of this drama has had zero net effect... so far. As Donald Trump reviews how to effectively cut the bloated U.S. budget, it is being reported that he is weighing approval of elimination of two cultural institutions that have been are the bane of many conservatives (or those who enjoy art with class, taste, and dignity).

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 25, 2017 48 Comments
I asserted that the most rogue agency under the Obama Administration was the Environmental Protection Agency. I think President Trump, who is focused on reducing America's regulatory burden, agrees. Not even a week into his presidency, it appears that Trump has put a freeze on spending for that agency.
President Donald Trump's administration has ordered ordered a freeze on some Environmental Protection Agency grants and contracts to states, as the department braces for more dramatic changes going forward.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 24, 2017 17 Comments
President Trump's "America First" Inauguration speech has been parodied in a comedy video from the Netherlands. A news satire show, Zondag Met Lubach, released a fake tourism advertisement aimed at Trump. It's worth watching past the trite, Trump-bashing introduction in Dutch for the hilarity that then ensures in English (the very best language).

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 24, 2017 7 Comments
Monday, President Trump's pen was very busy signing 3 executive orders, withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans Pacific Partnership, defunding International Planned Parenthood, and freezing the hiring of federal workers. His phone was also very busy. He made a supportive call to Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, indicating essentially military aide would continue to support the regional fight against Islamic extremist terrorists.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that Trump and President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi discussed ways to deepen the bilateral relationship between the two countries, fight terrorism and boost Egypt's struggling economy. ...Egypt is the second largest recipient of U.S. military aid.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 22, 2017 22 Comments
Anyone who still doubts how seriously President Donald Trump takes his new position or his capacity for hard work will be pleased to learn just how swiftly his new administration has changed the political climate already. My colleague Fuzzy Slippers has already reported that his first Executive Order lays the groundwork for waiving or minimizing the penalty for Americans who don’t buy health insurance that would probably void the burdensome Obamacare requirement altogether. His second order made General James Mattis our new Secretary of Defense.
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