November 3—The historic settlement reached by the United Auto Workers and the "Big Three" American automakers earlier this week is already having knock-on effects: Toyota has announced wage increases of 9% for workers in its American plants.

November 3—New York attorney general Letitia James has announced a $328 million settlement in her multi-year investigation of unfair labor practices by ride-share giants Uber and Lyft.

November 1—Recent agreements between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three American auto companies will bring top assembly work pay to $42 per hour by 2028; Ford says this will add between $850 and $900 to the cost of producing a new car. Will these costs be passed on to consumers (AP News article), or will the big auto makers, whose profits rose 92% between 2013 and 2022, absorb the costs (Economic Policy article)?

November 1—President Biden heads to Minnesota as part of a coordinated effort to woo rural voters into the Democrat fold. In spite of unprecedented investments through the Biden-sponsored Inflation Reduction Act of 2023, and in spite of wide support for kitchen table issues like health care and social security, culturally tradional rural Americans remain a hard sell for Democrats. 

November 1—Friends of social democracy are closely watching governors' races in two southern states next Tuesday: Democrat Andy Beshear is defending his office in Kentucky, and in Mississippi Brandon Presley is challenging incumbent Republican Tate Reeves. The contests may give some indication as to whether Democrats can win locally in spite of President Biden's low approval ratings.

November 1—Israel's ground invasion of Gaza is underway; the death toll now stands at 8,525 in Gaza and 1,400 in Israel, with 25,531 injured in Gaza and 5,431 Israeli injured. The war is having serious repercussions in the U.S., with parties identifying with either side in the conflict expressing their feelings in protests across the country.

October 31—A key feature of efforts to reign in global warming, and a major accomplishment of last year's climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, is the setting up of a fund fed by richer countries, which are largely responsible for emitting the greenhouse gases which cause global warming, to aid poorer nations, which have contributed relatively little to the climate problem, with remediation efforts. The richer nations, led by the U.S., are reluctant to establish a legal regime that might find them responsible for restitution to poorer countries harmed by climate change. It would seem, to the Social Democrat, a clear matter of simple equity that those nations which have contributed, and continue to contribute, most to global warming should do whatever is required to make whole those which have suffered its consequences.

October 31—President Biden has come out forcefully in favor of the two-state solution which has eluded would-be peace makers in the Middle East for decades, saying that after the current carnage ends, a return to the status quo ante is not an option. Whether he can convince the current right-wing government of Israel, a major recipient of U.S. aid, is in question.

October 31—The Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office was alerted by Lewiston Maine shooter Robert Card's family and his Army Reserve Unit about his deteriorating psychological state and large arsenal of lethal weaponry, with one of Card's co-reservists reporting that he feared that "Card was going to snap and commit a mass shooting."

October 31—The historic deal reached yesterday by the United Auto Workers with the Big Three U.S automakers (Ford, Stellantis and GM) is likely to have a significant spillover effect, forcing other automakers to increase compensation and encouraging unionization efforts in other sectors.

October 27—Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez speaks with Politico about the new House speaker's conflation of nation and religion.

October 27—Wang Yi, the Chinese dictatorship's foreign minister, is in Washington for meetings with top U.S. officials, possibly to include President Biden. At Thursday's meeting with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the two top diplomats discussed such areas of tension as China's expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea, its refusal to condemn both the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Hamas' attack on Israel, and restrictions on American exports of sensitive technology. It is hoped that the meeting will ease growing tensions between the two world super-powers.

October 27—Centrist Democrat Dean Phillips has announced that he will challenge President Biden for the Democratic nonimation in 2024, making him the second Democrat, after spiritualism author Marianne Williamson, to throw his hat in the ring. Seasoned observers give Phillips little chance of upsetting Biden's progression to the nomination, in spite of widespread concerns about the President's viability.

October 26—President Biden is requesting $56 billion from Congress for extending pandemic-era subsidies to the teetering childcare sector, improving high-speed Internet acces, and funneling disaster relief to California, Florida and other hard-hit areas.

October 26—The United States Department of Agriculture reports a substantial rise in the number of Americans experiencing food insecurity from 2021 to 2022, from 13.5 to 17 million households, with 7 million households experiencing what the USDA terms "very low food security."