SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Senate approves Syria, anti-BDS[*] bill
The Senate passed legislation on Thursday breaking with President Trump's Syria policy. Senators voted 77-23 to send the legislation to the House that includes a provision warning Trump against a "precipitous" withdrawal of troops from Syria and Afghanistan. It also asks the administration to certify that certain conditions have been met "for the enduring defeat of al Qaeda and ISIS before initiating any significant withdrawal of United States forces from Syria or Afghanistan."
[...] In addition to the Syria amendment, the bill also included sanctions against the Syrian government, increased support for Israel and Jordan and a provision that would let states penalize businesses that take part in boycotts or divestments of Israel.
Both the Syria amendment and the anti-BDS provisions sparked division among Democrats. [...] Democrats had raised First Amendment concerns about the anti-BDS provision, which splintered most of the party's 2020 contenders and caucus leadership. "While I do not support the BDS movement, we must defend every American's constitutional right to engage in political activity. It is clear to me that this bill would violate Americans' First Amendment rights," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement last week.
[*] BDS: boycott, divestment and sanctions.
Also at NYT.
See also: Is the Anti-BDS Bill Constitutional? Yes, But...
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday February 08 2019, @04:55AM
Days when you must attend church aren't exactly "days off", and in any case this cannot be tied to capitalism. It's blaming the wrong target. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to blame it, but in each case there's always the question "what alternatives are any better, and what are their drawbacks".
I tend to blame many problems on the centralization of power, and claim that the decisions should be made close to the place where they will be acted on, so that feedback is reasonably possible. But that has it's own problems, of course. I keep hoping that we'll develop an AI like the Collegatarch of Allan Dean Foster's "I Inside", but we're a bit of a distance from that technologically, and a huge distance from that socially.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.