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Pat Allen
I am a retired corporate lawyer, living in the Chicago suburbs, with a wife and two adult children.
Interests: Current events, the Cubs, reading, history, New Zealand
Recent Activity
Jacinda Ardern Gets It Right
See this post in my other blog, "The View from Right Field." Continue reading
Posted yesterday at A Different New Zealand
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#MedicareForAll – How It Will Really Work
While New Zealand has been in the news for other reasons lately, a hearing before the health select committee of the New Zealand Parliament last week should be of interest to those who think “Medicare for All,” or some other... Continue reading
Posted yesterday at The View from Right Field
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Jacinda Ardern Gets It Right
In the New Zealand parliament today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern got it right with respect to how to respond to the murderer and terrorist who killed 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday. This is from... Continue reading
Posted 2 days ago at The View from Right Field
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The Problem with Models
In her Notebook column in Saturday’s Financial Times,1 Gillian Tett notes that auto loans, including “subprime” auto loans, have risen sharply over the past year. In addition, the number of delinquent car loans, especially in the subprime category, are rising,... Continue reading
Posted 3 days ago at The View from Right Field
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Warren Buffet Says Don’t Invest in States Like Illinois
Warren Buffet is one of the Democrats’ favorite billionaires. Mr. Buffet was a big fan of Barack Obama. When President Obama was in office, Mr. Buffet argued that taxes on the wealthy were too low and complained that he paid... Continue reading
Posted 5 days ago at The View from Right Field
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A Tragedy in Christchurch
You can find my most recent post on my other blog, “A Different New Zealand,” here. Continue reading
Posted 5 days ago at The View from Right Field
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A Tragedy in Christchurch
Or should I say yet another tragedy in Christchurch. We visited Christchurch five years ago, at the end of our 5½-week vacation in New Zealand. At that point, in March of 2014, Christchurch was still recovering from the earthquakes in September of 2010 and February of 2011, the latter of... Continue reading
Posted 5 days ago at A Different New Zealand
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If 2016 Was the “Presidential Election from He**,” What Will 2020 Be?
Actually, the question may be “Isn’t 2020 That Way Already?” It seems pretty clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee – if he decides to run, but back to that in a moment. First, the Democrats. The Democratic... Continue reading
Posted 7 days ago at The View from Right Field
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A Few Comments on Where We Are Going With Our Defense Policy
An article in last week’s Economist, “Bringing out the big guns,” described the shift in direction that is taking place in the U.S. military as it “prepares for life after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Some of the changes... Continue reading
Posted Mar 7, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Foreign Policy After Trump: A Return to Normal or Is There a New Normal?
Commentators left, right, and center are explaining, and complaining, about why Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un, Supreme Leader of North Korea, failed to reach an agreement. Cutting through all of the commentary, the main reason is because President... Continue reading
Posted Mar 3, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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What’s More Important: Stormy Daniels or Nuclear Powers Fighting a War?
While official Washington and its media are focused on Michael Cohen’s testimony before Congress yesterday that Donald Trump is a liar and racist and was deeply involved in efforts to pay hush money to Story Daniels, on the other side... Continue reading
Posted Feb 28, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Will Trump Reach a Real Agreement With China? More Importantly, Can Pandas Fly?
Donald Trump has delayed the March 1 deadline for increasing tariffs on Chinese imports, saying that he expects the details of a final deal between the U.S. and China will be worked out at a summit meeting with Chinese President... Continue reading
Posted Feb 27, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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When Donald Meets Kim [Jong Un]
As Donald Trump heads for his second meeting with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, Robert Zoellick, former President of the World Bank and State Department official in both the George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush administrations (as well... Continue reading
Posted Feb 26, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Guns, Laws, and Aurora, Illinois
I have written before about guns and gun control (see here, here, and here). I don’t need to repeat what I said in those posts. I just wanted to comment on Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s vow, after the shootings in... Continue reading
Posted Feb 24, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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What’s Going to Happen In Venezuela?
Venezuela is starving. Literally. Aid is on its borders, but President Nicholas Maduro is refusing to let it in because the aid has been organized by opposition leader Juan Guaido (and countries supporting him). Already, at least four people have... Continue reading
Posted Feb 24, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Republicans in Illinois: What’s an Irrelevant Minority to Do?
Yesterday I wrote about Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget for Illinois. The question for today is: what should the Republicans do in response to Governor Pritzker’s proposal? It’s an interesting question because there are so few of them. In... Continue reading
Posted Feb 23, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Illinois’s New Governor – Kicking It Down the Road, Just Like Everybody Else
Illinois’s new governor, J.B. Pritzker, presented his proposed budget to the legislature this week. The budget raises taxes, increases spending, and kicks the pension can down the road, which means he gets one out of three right. If you’re batting,... Continue reading
Posted Feb 22, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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When Is Baseball Going to Start?
Pitchers and catchers have reported and the other guys are there, too, but it still doesn’t seem like baseball has started. Instead of baseball, reports from Arizona and comments from Cubs fans here are about Joe Ricketts’s emails, the Cubs's... Continue reading
Posted Feb 20, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Declaring a “National Emergency” to Build a Wall Is a Terrible Idea
President Trump has apparently decided to sign the budget bill and then declare a “national emergency” to build a wall on the border with Mexico. I’ll be brief: This is an absolutely terrible idea. Presidential power once stretched never returns... Continue reading
Posted Feb 14, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Bryce Harper, Salary Caps, and the New @Cubs TV Network
With Spring Training having started and Bryce Harper and Manny Machado both remaining unsigned, players are grumbling and fans are wondering. A few thoughts: Bryce Harper is a Scott Boras client, and Scott Boras clients don’t sign early. Greg Maddux... Continue reading
Posted Feb 14, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Is Elizabeth Warren a Native American or an American Indian?
The answer, of course, is neither, as even Elizabeth Warren says now. But what I found interesting about the Texas Bar registration card Senator Warren filled out in 1986 is not that she claimed be a race that she isn’t,... Continue reading
Posted Feb 10, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Will Illinois Ever Really Deal With Its Unfunded Pension Liability?
As Illinois’s new governor and old legislative leaders start to grapple with Illinois’s problems, the first question is what are they going to do about Illinois’s pension debt. Except, of course, that is not the first question they are going... Continue reading
Posted Feb 9, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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When Principles Are a Club, Instead of Principles
In contemplating the mess that is Virginia politics, it is perhaps most instructive to see how the calls for Governor Ralph Northam to resign have subsided as it became possible that the result of his resignation wouldn’t be just another... Continue reading
Posted Feb 8, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Who Says One Vote Doesn’t Matter?
As you prepare to go to the polls in various elections this year and next, some people will tell you that it doesn’t matter; that your one vote doesn’t matter. When it is pointed out that George W. Bush won... Continue reading
Posted Feb 7, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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Like Illinois, Like Chicago
Chicago has a mayoral election coming up on February 26, 2019 (with a run-off, if necessary, on April 2). Chicago is in much the same situation as the state it is in – and for much the same reason. Because... Continue reading
Posted Feb 4, 2019 at The View from Right Field
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