White Trash, The 400 Year Untold History of Class in America (2016 by Nancy Isenberg

This is a good read.  It really makes you question whether the is exceptional.  You hear politicians and their teammates say so, but is it really? 

There is and has always been racial discrimination.  That's too obvious to deny.  But there has also always been discrimination against poor whites. 

It puts neat things like To Kill a Mockingbird in a different light. It's a critique of racial discrimination, to be sure, but it also promotes negative stereotypes of the poor white. 

One strategy employed by those in power is to pit the racial minorities against the poor whites.  Jackson attacked racial minorities and did not really help the poor whites. He was not a universal suffrage guy, as advertised.  Conversely, those efforts to help the one disadvantaged group also are intended to help the other.  President Lincoln was the liberator of the slaves but also helped the poor white in his struggle against the slave power. 

The author takes it from the beginning in the 1600's and draws a straight line to last year.  The America First movement seems to validate her point.

Back to exceptionalism. Don't the elites in this country do what elites do in other countries?  They make do with what they have to stay on top the best they can.

This is an important subject and the author does it justice.

Baseball weekend

Friday-- A's practice, the first with our new pitching machine.

Saturday-- season opener, A's v. Dodgers.  We played with the machine.  The settings were a little off from our practice, but Taoster and the team figured it out.  Taoster can make that thing sing Home Sweet Home.  By the second inning, our kids were crushing it.  There was a little flap with the other manager about whether we continue playing in the bottom half of the inning when the game was effectively over.  The other team called it after our kid on second had to use the bathroom.  But overall it was a great experience experience.  All but 2 of our kids made contact, there were some serious plays in the field, and James went 3-3.

Sunday (today-- we put up the cage!  Saturday we assembled, but assembled it wrong.  Today we fixed it. Taoster and I were out there in 90 degree whether assembling this thing.  And I pitched a round of tennis balls to James.  He tore up the vegetables.  Success!  we still need to get the mulch out, drag the dirt, put in a home plate, get the machine set up, and other small potatoes stuff.  But we're 90% of the way there.  Now we can play ball and grow vegetables and fruit in the back yard.

Seoul Man by Frank Ahrens (2016

Interesting autobiography about reporter turned PR exec who works for Hyundai in Korea. It's mostly about his experiences of the Korean culture and there's also a bit about the car business.  There is some interesting surprising stuff about Koreans and Americans on the base there.  Also, he has a good sense of humor.  One to read.