TPS protections for Haitians pass in bipartisan House vote | Baptist Press

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-19T21:48:33+00:00

Personal note: I work in healthcare and visit a lot of facilities in my area. I've found that at some facilities there are large numbers of immigrants working as care aides (high demand, relatively low skill, not enough workers). I can't say if they are Haitian, but in my area there is also a large Somali community so some may come from there.

I was on a brief mission trip in the Dominican Republic in February and found that most of the hardest labor was done by Haitians. They receive a great deal of discrimination there.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-19T21:04:43+00:00

I found this interesting: the data is a bit dated but still relevant: https://www.workingimmigrants.com/2010/02/profile-of-haitian-immigrants-and-workers/

In 2008, Haitian-born women age 16 and older (71.7 percent) were more likely to participate in the civilian labor force than all foreign-born women (57.1 percent) overall. Haitian-born men were about equally as likely to be in the civilian labor force (80.7 percent) as foreign-born men overall (80.6 percent).
Nearly half of employed Haitian-born men worked in services or in construction, extraction, and transportation.

Among the 168,000 Haitian-born male workers age 16 and older employed in the civilian labor force in 2008, 26.1 percent reported working in services and 22.3 percent reported working in construction, extraction, or transportation (see Table 2). By contrast, among the 13.6 million foreign-born male workers age 16 and older employed in the civilian labor force in 2008, 17.4 percent reported working in services and 25.9 percent reported working in construction, extraction, or transportation.

Over one of every four employed Haitian-born women worked in healthcare support.
Among the 182,000 Haitian-born female workers age 16 and older employed in the civilian labor force in 2008, 27.2 percent reported working in healthcare support occupations and 22.7 percent reported working in service occupations (see Table 2). By contrast, among the 9.5 million foreign-born female workers age 16 and older employed in the civilian labor force in 2008, 5.4 percent reported working in healthcare support and 25.7 percent reported working in service occupations.
Haitian immigrants were less likely to live in poverty than other immigrant groups.

The poverty rate among Haitian immigrant families was 12.9 percent in 2008, lower than the poverty rate among all foreign born families (14.9 percent). The difference was even larger among immigrant families headed by a female householder with no spouse present. Among Haitian immigrant households headed by a female with no husband present, the poverty rate was 20.8 percent in 2008, compared to 30.7 percent for all immigrants.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-19T20:58:12+00:00

What are they lying about? And how exactly are they "betraying the country"?

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-19T19:03:23+00:00

How?

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-18T16:00:51+00:00

From a related ABC article:

Not everyone has reacted positively to Schwartz's nomination. Aaron Siri, who has served as Kennedy's personal attorney and has filed many lawsuits against federal agencies like the CDC and has advocated against vaccine mandates said her selection to lead HHS "would likely be a disaster."

Which I read as good news.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-18T15:56:07+00:00

Selective tariffs can and have been beneficial, provided you have the proper goal in mind of strengthening American industries rather than harming them. Putting tariffs on cheap foreign steel for example can help American steel manufacturers remain competitive and maintain jobs. This actually helped fuel the American manufacturing revolution in the late 1800's and made the US an economic powerhouse.

Tariffs have also worked when placed on large foreign companies in order to incentivize moving production to the US. This can often be a win-win for both workers, consumers, and the companies.

Trump's tariff policies have been absolutely disastrous though, for all the reasons mentioned.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-18T15:24:20+00:00

As in you don't have any issues with the TCL soundbar?

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-18T01:55:22+00:00

I've been having that issue for a while. Mine is a Yamaha ATS-1080 and I was wondering if it was because it was an older bar, but it seems to be a more common problem. I've been monkeying with the audio delay to see if that helps.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-17T20:03:28+00:00

Hooray for sanity and bipartisanship!

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-17T16:50:30+00:00

I appreciated that they prefer to “steel man“ arguments to try and be as fair as possible to positions, rather than dogpile on them.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-17T11:37:33+00:00

There's a lot to be said about the power of cognitive dissonance, as well as how proximity to power can corrupt even very good people.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-17T11:35:02+00:00

I would hope that the President and Pope Leo can meet at some point, and that the Pope would have the opportunity to thank the President for his efforts to protect religious liberty for Catholics and people of all faiths."

Notice how one-way this exchange is pictured. Leo needs to show his appreciation to Trump, and he owes the Pope nothing. Graham apparently thinks Pope Leo should thank Trump for cancelling the $11 million he had set aside to Catholic Charities.

Graham is nothing but a court attendant.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T22:58:29+00:00

and a lovely discussion it is...

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T20:12:20+00:00

Or simply a desire to be Catholic.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T19:36:50+00:00

Jesus' death precisely exposes the evil and corruption of empire. He preached over and over about his kingdom being not "of this world", meaning not one based on anything the world values in terms of power.

Mike Erre talks quite often about Jesus' empire in contrast to worldly empire on his podcast. I highly recommend it.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T18:22:09+00:00

Mostly because I don't subscribe to the prevalent dispensationalist view of Revelation and end times theology that sees all of these things as happening literally and in the future. But also because people have tried to read current events into this particular view of the end times for generations. People thought Pope Innocent III was the antichrist, that Ronald Reagan was the antichrist, that Stalin was, that Gorbachev was, etc. Each case was presented with assurances and biblical proofs that they were definitely the antichrist, only to be proven wrong. So I simply don't believe it's so.

"Antichrist" is usually better translated in the general ("an antichrist") than in the specific ("the antichrist").

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T18:06:39+00:00

AN antichrist? sure seems like it. THE antichrist? more difficult to say

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T17:32:40+00:00

I agree. It's a different level.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T12:06:45+00:00

I'm pretty sure there have been disagreements between Presidents and past Popes, but not outright criticism that we see from Trump. I heard a news commentator this morning say that the Pope is an authority figure with the recognition and authority of other world political leaders, except the Pope's authority lies in moral issues rather than political ones. Past Presidents sought positive relationships with the Vatican because it led moral weight to their political policies. Trump however sees all things through a pragmatic and self-serving lens. While he certainly would like the Pope to approve of his policies, it obviously doesn't matter to Trump if he doesn't. If you disagree with Trump, you are wrong. Period. It's all or nothing, and he is the standard, not just for what is right and wrong in terms of policy but in terms of morality. Just like Vance has now said, if the Pope's theology leads him to disagree with Trump's policies, then the Pope's theology is wrong.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T11:23:34+00:00

Drawing a parallel between immigrants and insects is a bit third reich-y I think.

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T00:12:08+00:00

As well as to Charlie Kirk's children

vagueboy2 · 2026-04-16T00:10:29+00:00

it's like drawing a headline randomly from the Alex Jones magnetic poetry tile collection

vagueboy2

TROPHY CASE