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This week on car talk, we figure out if electric vehicles are in America’s future or if we’re just gonna guzzle gas until it’s all gone. https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/zjz2d6/FDIC_0102_1.mp3 Hosts Brandon and Jamie workshop terrible ideas until they become slightly less terrible. From movies to comics to music to food, the FDI Cast throws a wide net […]

By Ashlee Banks ·February 19, 2021February 19, 2021

A Texas Mayor has resigned after telling residents to fend for themselves while much of the state grapples with a deadly and record-breaking winter storm. 

On Tuesday, February 16, millions of Texas residents were left without power and water as temperatures dipped below freezing. In spite of this, Colorado City Mayor Tim Boyd, who knew residents were literally fighting for their lives, for some reason became enraged and decided to take it out on the people he was elected to protect. 

Boyd posted a controversial, grammatically incorrect Facebook post about his thoughts surrounding the ongoing crisis in Texas. We knew it was going to be bad from the opening line: “Let me hurt some feelings while I have a minute!!!” he said. “No one owes you are [sic] your family anything: nor is it the local government’s responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim it’s your choice,” he continued. 

As a matter of fact, sir, it is the local government’s responsibility to help a community in need during a natural disaster. Why take on the responsibility of running a city if you couldn’t care less about the people residing there? These folks aren’t lazy, they are literally dying and in serious need of help.

“This is sadly a product of a socialist government where they feed people to believe that the FEW will work and others will become dependent on handouts…I’ll be d***** if I’m going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves…bottom line quit crying and looking for a handout! Get off you’re a** and take care of your own family,” Boyd went on to say. 

What part of this natural disaster isn’t he understanding? The people of Texas weren’t prepared for the weather to strike in the way that it did. So many have lost their homes because pipes are bursting. On to of that, these problems are exacerbated by the global pandemic and all of the troubles that go along with it. Some already depleted whatever was in their savings just so they could get through 2020. And now they have to figure out how to live through this storm. People aren’t looking for handouts. They’re simply looking to their elected officials to assist them. If people could help themselves by providing water, heat and power for their families then they would. Boyd is simply a selfish Mayor who doesn’t know how to lead. 

Boyd has since deleted the thoughtless Facebook post, but it doesn’t matter because many people had already shared it and screenshot it. He apologized in another Facebook post, saying, “I would never want to hurt the elderly or anyone that is in true need of help to be left to fend for themselves. I was only making the statement that those folks that are too lazy to get up and fend for themselves but are capable should not be dealt a handout. I apologize for the wording and some of the phrases that were used!”

Honestly, he should’ve resigned and skipped the empty apology. Boyd is a politician who should know to think before he speaks or publishes anything. He meant what he said, and now he needs to deal with the backlash. It’s time for him to come to grips with the fact that he potentially destroyed his career in politics because he thought it made sense to turn his back on his city during a crippling natural disaster.

The post Texas Mayor Resigns After Controversial Facebook Post appeared first on Essence.

From the award-winning author that brought you Destroyer and the rising star artist from Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Boom! Studios has announced today a brand new five-issue original series: EVE coming out May 2021.

“When the ice caps melted, most of humanity was lost to the hidden disease that was released.

Now, a mysterious girl named Eve has awoken in secret and must deal with a world that’s nothing like the virtual reality she was raised in. In order to save her father, Eve must embark on a deadly quest across the country, but she has no idea of the threats that await her – or the price she will pay to restore life to a dying planet…”

Victor LaValle is the author of seven works of fiction including The Ballad of Black Tom, which was a finalist for a Nebula Award, a Hugo Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Award and the writer of the acclaimed comic book series Victor LaValle’s Destroyer with BOOM! Studios. He teaches at Columbia University and lives in New York City with his wife and kids.

“What kind of planet are we leaving to our kids? This is the question that spawned my comic book. It’s an old one, of course. Many generations have wrestled with it, but the question has never been as immediate” said LaValle. “But I didn’t want to write some grim story about how this joint went to hell. Instead, I wanted to write a story about how we let the planet fall apart and left it to the younger generations to fix it. So this a story, inspired by young folks like Mari Copeny, Elsa Mengistu, Greta Thunberg and so many more, of how an eleven-year-old girl, EVE, and her android teddy bear try to do the seemingly impossible: save the planet, save us.”

Jo Mi-Gyeong is a comic artist and illustrator based out of Seoul, Korea, best known for her work on Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance for BOOM! Studios and the original comic book series Beastlands.

“A new kind of apocalyptic landscape awaits our hero EVE and her strange teddy bear in this brand new world full of the weird and the unthinkable,” said Mi-Gyeong. “I had a lot of fun illustrating this fascinating world that Victor built, and I can’t wait to show you all a future beyond your wildest imagination!”

EVE #1 features main cover art by artist Ario Anindito (Star Wars: The High Republic) and variant covers by famed illustrator Yuko Shimizu (Dracula, Motherfxxker), and acclaimed artist InHyuk Lee (Magic, Mighty Morphin).

“Victor is a visionary writer who brings a sense of realism and heart to the sci-fi and horror stories he crafts,” said Eric Harburn, Senior Editor, BOOM! Studios. “He and Jo have created a beautiful, haunting world for EVE that is no less prophetic for being fictional, in a series that addresses one of the most pressing concerns of humanity today.”

EVE is the newest release from BOOM! Studios’ eponymous imprint, home to critically acclaimed original series, including BRZRKR by Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, and Ron Garney; We Only Find Them When They’re Dead by Al Ewing and Simone Di Meo; Seven Secrets by Tom Taylor and Daniele Di Nicuolo; Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera; Once & Future by Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora; Faithless by Brian Azzarello and Maria Llovet; and Abbott by Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä. The imprint also publishes popular licensed properties, including Dune: House Atreides from Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, and Dev Pramanik; Buffy the Vampire Slayer from Jordie Bellaire and David López; Firefly from Greg Pak, Lalit Kumar Sharma & Daniel Bayliss; and Mighty Morphin and Power Rangers from Ryan Parrott, Marco Renna, and Francesco Mortarino.

Print copies of EVE #1 will be available for sale in May 2021 exclusively at local comic book shops (use comicshoplocator.com to find the nearest one) or at the BOOM! Studios webstore. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Madefire.

For continuing news on EVE and more from BOOM!, stay tuned to www.boom-studios.com and follow @boomstudios on Twitter.

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The post EXCLUSIVE: Boom! Studios Announces “EVE” From Victor LaValle and Jo Mi-Gyeong appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Source: Jim Dyson / Getty

Late last year, singer and entertainer Tahliah “FKA Twigs” Barnett made some damning accusations against her ex-boyfriend, actor Shia LaBeouf. In an interview The New York Times, she detailed not only the emotional, physical and sexual abuse, she announced that she was suing him and plans to donate a significant portion of the funds to organizations that raise awareness about domestic violence.

When the claims were initially brought to the public, LaBeouf denied that all of them were true but did take responsibility for some of his actions saying, “I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say.”

Later, LaBeouf’s team came out and denied all of Barnett’s allegations, even claiming that he only attacked her as a form of self-defense .

Recently, Barnett spoke to CBS This Morning’s Gayle King to not only detail the abuse but also raise awareness about the cycle of domestic violence. During the course of their interview, she also shared a teachable moment with King and anyone else who has ever thought to ask domestic violence survivors why they didn’t leave.

See what she had to say below.

Early warning signs

In the beginning, he would jump over the fence where I was staying and leave flowers outside my door, poems and books. I thought it was very romantic but that quickly changed. I understand now, that’s testing your boundaries. Instead of thinking that’s nice to have flowers outside your door, now I think that’s inappropriate to jump over the fence of where I’m living. That’s breaking a boundary.

It’s very subtle. It’s a real gradual, step by step process where people lose themselves so much that they feel like they deserve to be treated in that way. It’s not one thing.  It’s loads of tiny little things that get sewn together into a nightmare.

What is Love bombing?

Putting me on a pedestal, telling me that I’m amazing, over the top displays of affection just to knock me off the pedestal to tell me that I was worthless, to criticize me to berate me, pick me apart. Some of the worst times I experienced in that relationship was when he felt like he was losing control of me and like I was trying to get out.

Gaslighting

Abusers use gaslighting which is where somebody minimizes your experience, altering your narrative, not listening to you and denying your experience. And eventually it did become physical. There were certain instances where he would push me and say, ‘You fell.’ I would get really confused and think maybe I did…

Sexual abuse

Then he’d only want me to sleep naked because he said if I didn’t, I was keeping myself from him. It’s a tactic a lot of abusers use, this constant availability and everything centered around them. That’s why I wanted to come out and talk about this because the signs really are there from the beginning.

Filing the lawsuit

I didn’t want to originally. I wanted to ensure that he got help privately so that he wouldn’t hurt anyone else the way he hurt me. I wanted him to donate money to charity. Because when I called the helpline, it was a moment of changing for me.

Gayle: If he had done the things that you had asked, you would not be filing the lawsuit?

FKA Twigs: No.

Why didn’t she leave

Gayle: Nobody who’s been in this position likes this question and I often wonder, is it even an appropriate question to ask. And you know the question is, ‘Why didn’t you leave?’

FKA Twigs: I think we just have to stop asking that question. I know that you’re asking it out of love. But I’m just going to make a stance and say I’m not going to answer it anymore because the question should really be to the abuser, ‘Why are you holding someone hostage with abuse?’

And people often say, ‘Well, it couldn’t have been that bad or else she would have left.’ And it’s like no, because it was that bad, I couldn’t leave.

What she makes of LaBeouf’s statement

It reminds of some of the gaslighting that I experienced when I was with him, the sort of taking some of the blame but not all of it and then denying it.

What she hopes will come out of speaking out

The result for me Is already happening. I just couldn’t carry it anymore. I felt like I was cracking. Whereas now I feel like I’ve handed his dysfunction back to him and it’s his…I’m feeling brave.

You can watch the full interview in the video below.