notes on Dark Money: The Hidden HIstory of the Billionaires Behindthe Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer (2016

The story is as it's titled.  Billionaires take over the Republican Party, then take over the government.

Plutocracy: government by the wealthy, for the wealthy.

But there's an interesting spin on it.  The voters assent to it.

It was hard to get through at times.  It's a little too factual. At times, it's a pretty dry description of the mechanics of how the rich get the public to agree with their point of view.   The problem is beyond the facts.  You can't just expose what's going on and then it stops.

It's an important subject but this book was not the best way to get at the root of the problem.

Notes on Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance (2016

Memoir written by 31 descendant of Kentucky Hillbillies.  It's a pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of life story, a tough upbringing but ends up at an ivy league law school. It's also a meditation on what it means to be a hillbilly and from hillbillies in America. He's a good writer with a good sense of humor.  Is this the introduction the right wing answer to Obama? Time will tell.