Erica Van Houten
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epvh.bsky.social
Erica Van Houten
@epvh.bsky.social
230 followers 220 following 2.8K posts
Trans girl in Texas. Software nerd by day, local and state advocate by night.
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epvh.bsky.social
TACO
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h
Trump: "Based upon a very productive meeting I had with Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region. This solution, if consummated, will be a great one... Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs"
Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region. This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations. Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st. Additional discussions are being held concerning The Golden Dome as it pertains to Greenland. Further information will be made available as discussions progress. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and various others, as needed, will be responsible for the negotiations — They will report directly to me. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
January 21, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Erica Van Houten
brilandia.bsky.social
genuinely insane the chilling effect employer based health insurance has on free speech. totally underrated and mostly ignored.
gravelinfluencer.bsky.social Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 4h
Also, when you're in a country where your health insurance is tied to your job, people are naturally less inclined to protest when there is a risk of it affecting your job.
January 21, 2026 at 4:59 PM
epvh.bsky.social
EU divest now. Please. Force someone to stop him.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6h
Trump: "We should be paying the lowest interest rate of any country in the world, because without the United States you don't have a country." 🥴
January 21, 2026 at 3:11 PM
epvh.bsky.social
“Motonormativity” is just a fancy word for “car brain”.
gravelinfluencer.bsky.social Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 6h
New research reinforces two common themes:

People, even cyclists, get big mad over bike lanes when it could mean fewer parking spots

Drivers view any attempt to provide more freedom of choice in mobility options as an attack on *their* freedom to drive.

theconversation.com/why-do-peopl...
Where the space came from also mattered. People strongly preferred schemes that took cycling space from the road rather than from pathways. But there was one consistent red line: parking. Even participants who identified as regular cyclists were reluctant to support layouts that involved removing car-parking spaces. This suggests that resistance is less about cycling infrastructure itself and more about specific design trade-offs. Taking a modest amount of road space is widely accepted but removing parking risks triggering backlash. Why do some people oppose cycle lanes and traffic restrictions so strongly? Part of the answer lies in identity. Our study found that those who strongly identified as “drivers” were more hesitant about giving up road space to cyclists, while self-identified “cyclists” were more supportive. But the biggest divide was not between cyclists and drivers. Both groups often preferred the same measures. The strongest opposition came instead from a small group who see new cycling infrastructure as an infringement on their “freedom” to travel the way they want. This group consistently preferred the status quo over all options that would reallocate space to cyclists or restrict vehicle access. This way of thinking may be rooted in what researchers call motonormativity, a deep-seated assumption that roads exist primarily for cars and that drivers’ needs should come first. Within this context, giving space to cyclists is seen as taking something away from motorists, not expanding people’s freedom to travel as they choose.
January 21, 2026 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Erica Van Houten
startribune.com
Mischief Toy Store in St. Paul has until Wednesday to turn over employment records to the Department of Homeland Security as part of a surprise audit launched Friday, just hours after one of the shop's owners criticized ICE agents during a television interview. bit.ly/4r5AFol
January 21, 2026 at 3:35 AM
epvh.bsky.social
Can we take the nuclear football away from Grandpa yet?
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d
Q: How far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland?

TRUMP: You'll find out
January 20, 2026 at 8:21 PM
epvh.bsky.social
How is it viable for a class of people to own 10x of an asset class then they consume? Doesn’t that just mean the top 10% own everything the bottom 90% consume? Like, that’s what people are pissed about. Moving it from the 1% to the 10% doesn’t really solve the problem.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d
Bessent on institutional investors: "I's a good idea to have them out of the [housing] market. We're going to give guidance to see what is a mom & pop. Maybe your parents for their retirement bought 10 or 12 homes. We don't want to push the mom & pops out, we just want to push everyone else out"
January 20, 2026 at 6:09 PM
epvh.bsky.social
Let’s just get this over with and have the rest of the WTO full on embargo us. The US is a hostile actor to every other state and the faster they force us to fix that the better.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d
BARTIROMO: What do you want to say about the European Union pushing back and saying they're not going to complete their trade deal with the US because of Greenland?

BESSENT: I'd tell everyone sit back. Take a deep breath. Do not retaliate. Do not retaliate. Have an open mind.
January 20, 2026 at 2:54 PM
epvh.bsky.social
On the other side of this all the things we have done need to be laid out for all to see. As a society we need to have enough guilt that no one thinks anything like this is conscionable ever again.
ziibiing.com ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · 8d
just a reminder that we aren’t even seeing the worst of what is happening in Minneapolis from someone detailed at the Whipple Federal Building yesterday
Eyewitness account: Good morning, My name is Brandon Siguenza, and l am a US citizen from Minneapolis. Yesterday, while doing legal observation, ICE stopped their cars to harass my friend and me. They sprayed pepper spray into the vent of our vehicle. We held our hands in the air and told them we were not obstructing, that the car was in park and they were free to drive forward and away. There was no active immigration raid. They returned to their cars, and drove forward a bit, then decided to stop again. They surrounded us, smashed the windows of our car, opened the doors (they were unlocked), ripped my friend and I out of the car and arrested us on charges of obstruction. I was put in an unmarked SUV, separated from my friend. As I was put in the back seat an ICE agent tore the whistle off my neck and said "I'll be taking this, I might need it later." My phone was knocked out of my hand while being arrested. As we drove away I asked the driver and the passenger if they wouldn't mind buckling my seatbelt, as they were driving erratically. I was ignored. I asked them if I could have the handcuffs loosened, as I was losing circulation, and was told no. At one point the passenger realized his own driver's license was in the backseat next to mine, and tried to surreptitiously grab it without me seeing it. We were taken to the Whipple federal building, where I saw dozens of brown people being processed in an unheated garage. I was frisked, told of my charges, and saw buses and vans being prepped. I later learned that these were being filled with detainees and driven to the airport for deportation. As we were led in, I noticed that the building was very busy. I got the impression that one of the 2 agents bringing me around was being trained. At multiple points throughout my stay, government agents were unable to open doors, not sure where they were meant to be going, and overall confused and overwhelmed. They couldn't figure out how to use the building phones, or complai…
January 15, 2026 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Erica Van Houten
risettemd.bsky.social
We don't "need" Greenland
We shouldn't be kidnapping world leaders, even if they're corrupt
And we shouldn't be putting entire US cities under siege

These are things that are objectively, unquestionably wrong. All propaganda that exists to justify these things is also wrong.
January 15, 2026 at 2:45 PM
epvh.bsky.social
I should read Malcom Xs speeches.
bwganbuzz.bsky.social Bwgan Buzz @bwganbuzz.bsky.social · 6d
Thinking of a few Malcolm x speeches as they tell people getting kidnapped in the streets by masked thugs to ‘remain calm’
If a man speaks the language of brute force, you can't come to him with peace. Why, good night! He'll break you in two, as he has been doing all along. If a man speaks French, you can't speak to him in German. If he speaks Swahili, you can't communicate with him in Chinese. You have to find out what this man speaks. And once you know his language, learn how to speak his language, and he'll get the point. There'll be some dialogue. You know the language the Klan speaks. It is a duty, it's your and my duty as human beings, it is our duty to our people, to organise ourselves and let the government know that if they don't stop that Klan, we'll stop it ourselves. So I don't believe in violence - that's why I want to stop it. And you can't stop it with love. So, we only mean vigorous action in self-defence and that vigorous action we feel we're justified in initiating by any means necessary. The press call us racist and people who are "violent in reverse." This is how they psycho you. They make you think that if you try to stop the Klan from lynching you, you're practising "violence in reverse."
January 15, 2026 at 2:35 PM
epvh.bsky.social
We should as Renee about how politically lethal it might be.
ryanhatesthis.bsky.social Ryan Broderick @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social · 8d
ICE may be shooting people in the face, sending people to concentration camps, and illegally occupying our cities but, apparently, the Democrats think saying, "abolish ICE" is "emotional" and politically "lethal."
January 15, 2026 at 2:37 AM
epvh.bsky.social
Can we be done yet?
minneapolismn.gov City of Minneapolis @minneapolismn.gov · 6d
We are aware of reports of a shooting involving federal law enforcement in North Minneapolis. We are working to confirm additional details.
January 15, 2026 at 2:12 AM
epvh.bsky.social
Famously the highest court in the lands decisions are not allowed to settle legal disputes in the entire country. Good call Mr. Kavanaugh.

That man is painfully unserious.
jaywillis.net Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 8d
In the Supreme Court's trans sports cases, Brett Kavanaugh's only question so far has been about whether a decision upholding Idaho's ban would extend to other states, too, and Idaho's lawyer said no, and Kavanaugh sounded satisified, and I think that's probably the game right there
January 13, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Erica Van Houten
adambonica.bsky.social
If there's one empirical insight I'd want everyone to understand about American politics, it's this:

America's problems are solved problems. Just not here.

What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵
Screenshot of a data visualization titled “The Cost of American Exceptionalism,” subtitled “What would change if the U.S. matched the OECD average?” The page explains that each card shows how outcomes would change if the U.S. matched the average of 31 peer democracies. Below, a section labeled “Economy & Inequality” displays eight cards comparing U.S. figures to OECD averages. Highlights include: +$19K per household per year in redistributed income and +$96K in redistributed wealth if the top 1% matched OECD shares; a 71% lower CEO-to-worker pay ratio (from 354× to 101×); 50 million more workers with union coverage; 26 million more people with health insurance; $2.1 trillion saved annually in healthcare spending; $691 less per person per year in prescription drug costs; and intergenerational economic mobility being twice as high. Each card shows the U.S. value alongside the OECD average.
January 12, 2026 at 9:36 PM
epvh.bsky.social
To take transit anywhere I have to take a ride share to a ride share 4 miles. It would be a 2 and a half hour walk, largely without sidewalks.
Americans Explain Why Public Transport Can't Work
YouTube video by Evan Edinger
youtu.be
January 12, 2026 at 10:57 PM
epvh.bsky.social
All I’m saying is closing down the “Department of Shooting Mothers in the Face” should be a reasonable position.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9d
Speaker Mike Johnson: "We should not be limiting funding for Homeland Security at a dangerous time. We need public officials to allow law enforcement to do their jobs."
January 12, 2026 at 7:23 PM
epvh.bsky.social
Oopsie, I almost did a murder. uWu
gravelinfluencer.bsky.social Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 9d
If you give the whoopsie wave and stay at the scene the pedestrian you hit is miraculously healed
tomflood.bsky.social Tom Flood @tomflood.bsky.social · 9d
Police Absolve Man for Dangerous Driving After Finding Out He Did Give The Little "Whoopsie" Wave.
January 12, 2026 at 2:53 PM
epvh.bsky.social
That closing line.
January 11, 2026 at 1:51 PM
epvh.bsky.social
He’s getting glazed by Russia and China and that’s all he cares about.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12d
Trump on his Venezuela coup: "I was called by the leaders of numerous countries. I won't go into which ones, but the biggest and the strongest, and they said, 'That was very impressive.' They're all impressed."
January 9, 2026 at 8:10 PM
epvh.bsky.social
People being civil is predicated on the government following the rules that were agreed to.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12d
Rep. Roger Williams: "People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil."
January 9, 2026 at 1:33 PM
epvh.bsky.social
I may have been pushing into a 20mph block headwind to get home and having similar thoughts in the past. The ride out was tons of fun at least.
russbengtson.bsky.social sustenance engagement farmer @russbengtson.bsky.social · 12d
funniest incident I ever had was riding into a headwind just yelling curses at god and at the next red light some dude in a giant pickup was standing on his doorsill screaming at me that he gave me enough room and who the fuck am I yelling at, and motherfucker I wasn't even yelling at you
January 8, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Erica Van Houten
joncooper-us.bsky.social
Cartoon by @badiucao.bsky.social.
January 8, 2026 at 12:23 PM
epvh.bsky.social
Not going to quote the video because… fuck.

Is it a good thing that our federal government is empowering its officers to shoot people in the street while peacefully protesting? That’s bad right?
January 7, 2026 at 6:09 PM
epvh.bsky.social
Peacefully and legally climbing through a broken window.

How did the window get broken? Hmm?
adambonin.bsky.social Adam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 15d
According to the White House, this is the "true" timeline of January 6th.
January 6, 2026 at 6:50 PM