In the tumultuous wake of Renee Good’s death, a video from Minnesota’s Becker High School is going viral on social media.The footage captures social studies teacher Dr. Heather Abrahamson heatedly arguing with a student about the fatal shooting of Good — the 37-year-old anti-ICE protester who struck ICE agent Jonathan Ross with her vehicle while deliberately impeding an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on January 7.On a recent episode of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” Sara played the footage and discussed the radical politicization of our teachers’ unions and the leftist indoctrination of our youth with Teacher Freedom Alliance CEO Ryan Walters. In the clip, Abrahamson insists that Officer Ross should have de-escalated the situation. “Your job as a police officer is to de-escalate,” she spat, gesturing dramatically at the dissenting student, who fired back, “He had a split second.”“Watch the video! He was not in danger,” Abrahamson retorted, ignoring the fact that footage from the incident captures Ross being propelled backward as Good’s vehicle makes contact with him and numerous reports that Ross suffered internal bleeding following the incident.“Just because you’re yelling doesn’t mean you’re winning an argument,” the student said, refusing to bend.“Just because you’re alive doesn’t mean you are intelligent,” Abrahamson clapped back.The recording of this chaotic encounter, distributed by Libs of TikTok, has amassed nearly 4 million views on X and sparked intense debate over political indoctrination in classrooms.“This is a very pervasive issue,” Sara says, displaying the following memo recently distributed by the National Education Association arguing for increased anti-ICE activism. This kind of left-wing activism poisoning America’s classrooms, Walters says, is “a coordinated effort from the teachers’ unions.”“‘Tell your students that the police are the enemy, that ICE is the enemy’ — and this is exactly what they're pushing into our schools,” he says. “It’s not a one-off. It’s not, well, you know, here’s some crazy left-wing socialist teacher. No, this is the teachers’ unions utilizing their foot soldiers to ... undermine this country through the classrooms.”Sara brings up a recent Fox News article that exposed the NEA — the largest teachers’ union in the United States and the largest labor union overall in the country — for funneling millions in union funds during the 2024 fiscal year to various far-left and social justice-oriented groups and ballot initiatives.“In a lot of these places, the teachers don’t have a choice. They have to join the union. They have to pay the fees,” Sara says. “I mean, it’s adding insult to injury that you’re essentially stealing from someone because they want to have the occupation as a teacher and then you’re using it to fund [left-wing] causes.”Walters says that it’s paramount that we stop them.“We have to defund them. Every teacher, you should opt out. Go to optouttoday.com. Get out of the union. Quit paying union fees to destroy this country. ... And every state should be passing legislation to rail back on the union’s power. There shouldn’t be teachers’ unions,” he says.“What you have in the teachers’ union is this huge apparatus of power. They have a ton of money. They have a ton of resources. They are embedded in the Democrat Party. They are one of their biggest funders,” he continues.Walters warns that if we fail to defeat teachers’ unions, the consequences are potentially massive: “They’re going to gear up all this before the congressional elections, just like they did for Kamala Harris when over $400 million went from the teachers’ union to her presidential campaign. Same thing’s going to happen in this election cycle.”But the money is just the weapon — the real war is in our classrooms.Teachers’ unions, Walters says, have been instrumental in brainwashing younger generations into becoming America-hating, die-hard Democrats.“We didn’t just wake up one day ... [with] millions of kids that sit here and think we’re an evil, racist country. They think cops are bad guys. That didn’t just happen. It happened because of a coordinated attack,” he says.The viral video of Dr. Abrahamson insulting a student’s intelligence because he refused to condemn an ICE agent he believes acted in self-defense is merely one thread in a vast tapestry of proof.“We’ve got to turn this around 180 degrees in the other direction and go back to a patriotic education, love of country, love of American values. We’ve got to get back to that,” Walters urges.To hear more of the conversation and see the viral video, watch the episode above.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Virginia's new Democrat governor was inaugurated just six days ago, but already the safely ensconced Democrat legislature has a plan: more than 1,000 bills to supplement the administration's already aggressive agenda of executive orders.Gov. Abigail Spanberger campaigned as a pragmatist — a moderate former CIA agent fighting for an “Affordable Virginia” and giving the increasingly blue state a reprieve from President Donald Trump and her own predecessor, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.It’s a brave new world out there, folks. And ‘moderation’ is coming for the rest of this country, as soon as the voters get in line.Spanberger sold voters “moderation.” Her party intends to legislate like it never heard the word.The new blue majority have been in power in this once-red state for less than two weeks, and already they’ve reminded Americans their view of “pragmatism” is discarding the notion as soon as they assume power. Taken as a whole, their agenda provides provided a blueprint for exactly what other purple-state voters can expect under any unified Democrat government — and why it’s so dangerous.Virginia’s executive and legislative branches have already unveiled plans to decriminalize heinous crimes, protect and pay for illegal aliens, end investigations into massive fraud against taxpayers, empower radical and failing public school bureaucrats, raise taxes across the board, meddle in private lives and businesses in the name of climate change, restrict firearms, obscure shady elections, and make housing more affordable — for government employees.That may sound like your typical partisan attack, worth glossing over in our ever-shriller news-smothered lives. But every proposal below is either an authentic executive order or a true piece of legislation introduced in the Virginia House or Senate for consideration in the coming days and months.Lawless by designDemocrats want softer sentencing rules. House Bill 244 would weaken guidelines that judges use to sentence convicted criminals, giving even more discretion to Democrat judges already inclined toward leniency for robbers.That's child's play next to HB 863, a 28-page bill to reduce mandatory minimum sentences on a whole host of crimes, including rape, possessing or distributing child pornography, repeat violent crime, and attacking law enforcement officers.House Bill 1070 goes farther, restricting how prosecutors can refer to a suspect’s prior convictions during the phase when the judge or jury decides guilt.After conviction, Senate Bill 21 would shift juvenile crime oversight toward the Virginia Department of Health and Human Services, sidelining the Department of Juvenile Justice and reframing ultraviolent juvenile crime as a “health” crisis.Then comes the cultural haze. The governor’s allies want Virginia to host 350 marijuana shops within four years, while preventing local communities from saying “no thanks” and allowing stores to operate within 1,000 feet of schools and churches. SB 62 would even retroactively reduce sentences for some marijuana-related crimes, including transportation and distribution.Democrats do have a taste for toughness — when it targets the wrong people. House Bill 7 would bar law enforcement agents from wearing masks, inviting activists to identify and harass them at home. Senate Bill 137 would criminalize coming within eight feet of someone who stands within 40 feet of an abortion clinic.RELATED: ‘Place your left hand on the Quran’: Foreign-born lieutenant governor does not swear in on Bible Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty ImagesBenefits for illegal aliensNot everyone will be upset about the new laws, of course. Illegal immigrants have reason to celebrate, starting with the new governor's immediate move to declare Virginia a sanctuary state and end an order compelling local cooperation with federal law enforcement.House Bill 650 would block arrests at courthouses and bar federal agents from showing up there for that purpose. House Bill 912 would expand access to Virginia’s K-12 public schools for illegal aliens, funded by taxpayers. House Bill 553 would require language programming for inmates — a bill sponsored for Virginia Rep. Jessica Anderson, who gained a little local notoriety for TikToking herself peeing in public.Virginia employers who make a pretty penny employing illegal labor need not worry either — unless they don't pay illegal aliens enough. HB 675 wouldn't hold them accountable for undercutting American workers but will be sure to fine them if they try to skirt minimum-wage laws.Those aliens would be suckers to work for low wages when they could open a day care, though. No joke. That same pee video rep’s HB 1369 would protect fraudsters taking federal money, barring the state from "determin[ing], verify[ing], or otherwise requir[ing] proof of eligibility ... for such public benefits."Don't everyone rush to start a nonprofit at once, though. There’s plenty to go around. HB 259 would send more money toward starting at-home child-care programs.Call it the Minnesota dream, imported to the Old Dominion.Public schools: Parents and kids lastVirginia’s public schools already struggle with basics. Democrats want them to absorb more bureaucracy and more ideology.House Bill 614 mandates history and social science instruction through the lens of “marginalized” identities. It includes traditional categories such as black Americans, women, immigrants, and the disabled. It also explicitly requires emphasis on “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer” experiences — plus whatever additional categories “the Board deems appropriate, in order to affirm such communities.”Some might not want all that for their kids, so HB 359 makes it more difficult to homeschool or use any state benefits to attend private school.And no matter where you send your kids, you'll be paying for public school breakfast, which HB 96 mandates for all students through high school.If you're good at something, never do it for free, so HB 382 will give school board chairmen a nice raise.Meanwhile, HB 355 would impose mandatory mental health screenings for students. It does not impose them on the lunatics who run the system.Taxes on everythingVirginia Democrats inherited a nearly $3 billion budget surplus. They plan to raise taxes anyway — not just on billionaires, but on nearly everyone.There's no limit on what you can tax when you go for goods, labor, and now the services of that labor. House Bill 978 taxes services: gym memberships, laundry and dry cleaning, pet-sitting, repairs, mechanics, landscaping, storage, deliveries, travel services, décor services, and digital services. If what you’ve read so far makes you anxious, I’m sorry to say that therapy makes the list too.But if it gives you a heart attack and you're already on Obamacare, HB 405 would help cover the skyrocketing costs of that Democrat boondoggle. And there are real costs to health insurance. HB 1182 would require your Virginia insurance plan to cover condoms.Then come new taxes on hotels (HB 524), events (HB 550), deliveries (HB 900), heavy car use and highway use (HB 1179), and landscaping tools (HB 557). House Bill 881 would ban gas-powered leaf blowers. Welcome to California East.Blowing your brains out will cost you more, thanks to HB 919’s increased taxes on guns and ammunition.HB 334 would add more local sales taxes. HB 378 targets investment taxes. HB 188 hikes taxes 74% for those making $1 million or more.The new slush fundsWhat else are we going to pay for with all this free money? Saving the planet, for one. You might have thought global warming doom-whispering hasn't been in since Al Gore checked out, but in Virginia it's back, baby.HB 324 would establish a new slush fund for electric vehicle infrastructure. And if you're doing any business with local public schools, HB 1340 lets you take a little off the top to buy yourself a new Tesla.HB 1230 sets aside $100 million for “sustainable aviation fuel,” whatever that means. HB 920 expands offshore wind subsidies fivefold — but not necessarily for white male-owned energy firms. HB 61 mandates preferential treatment for women- and minority-owned businesses in state contracting, even if costs rise.Cities and localities can get in on the game too. In fact, they’re required. House Bill 256 would mandate that localities submit “environmental justice strategies.”Own some land? HB 1091 treats solar panels as “agriculture.” If you're an actual farmer, though, watch out: HB 950 elevates environmental enforcement so high that it removes the need for a warrant before flying camera drones over private property.So much for self-defenseOf course, the rich men down in Richmond can’t have you shooting those drones down, so access to firearms is about to be severely restricted in a state once celebrated for sportsmanship and self-defense alike.Want to shoot on private land? Better buy more, son. HB 926 would restrict shooting unless you own at least five acres.It's a noisy sport, after all. But HB 207 would add a $500 tax for suppressors.Some weapons are scarier than others, so HB 217 bans “assault weapons.”And HB 969 would establish the Virginia Gun Violence Prevention Center — another bureaucracy that will not stop criminals but will surely harass lawful owners.RELATED: Trump’s agenda faces a midterm kill switch in 2026 Jim Watson/Getty ImagesHousing relief — for bureaucratsDemocrats did think about affordability. They just defined the beneficiaries carefully.House Bill 1130 would steer “surplus” city buildings toward housing for government employees, while House Bill 164 removes a $25,000 cap on grants for government employees buying homes, opening the door to far larger taxpayer-funded assistance for the big American purchase.But that’s not all. During government shutdowns, federal employees whose votes have made so many Democrat dreams come true would get extra time to pay their taxes, thanks to HB 915. The state is deeply determined to show its thanks to those loyal voters especially. HB 494 grants special treatment in state hiring to federal employees laid off under the Trump administration.Entrenching the machineIf you've made it this far, you might be thinking “Well, by golly, I'll vote these bastards out in two years’ time." But hold on, old buddy. Democrats have bills for that, too.HB 82 allows absentee ballots to arrive and be counted three days after Election Day is “over.” HB 773 would provide a week to “cure” incorrect ballots, while HB Bill 1244 would allow for “emergency absentee ballots” to be made available shortly before elections.Other innovations include ranked-choice voting (HB 630), voting by internet (HB 493), and a total ban on Virginians challenging suspected fraud at a polling place (HB 640).You won't have to raise any money from local citizens and businesses to run, thanks to HB 162, which would let candidates raid the taxpayer for their campaign costs. They might not even need to really live in the commonwealth after HB 835 hides their addresses from even irritating reporter FOIA requests.To make sure everything runs above board, Senate Bill 52 would block cleanup of voter rolls in the three months before an election. And since we live in the future now, HB 968 bans hand-counting ballots.Virginia’s new leadership campaigned on “Affordable Virginia.” To get there, somehow, SB 22 mandates racial bias training for nurses, HB 858 would rename Columbus Day as “Indigenous Peoples Day,” HB 994 allows localities to install as many speeding and crosswalk cameras as they want, and HB 415 makes the long-neglected pawpaw the official state fruit.It’s a brave new world out there, folks. And “moderation” is coming for the rest of this country, as soon as the voters get in line.

I had been living in New York for several years, writing young adult novels. But I wanted to move to Los Angeles. I needed a change of scenery, and I wanted to try screenwriting.A friend connected me to a guy who had spent several years in L.A. pursuing film and TV writing. I called the guy and told him my plan.The hair dye felt like it was burning my scalp. After I rinsed it out, my whole head glowed. Did it make me look younger? I guess it did. But it also made me look like a clown.He said: “How old are you?”I said 49.He said, “That’s too old. You can’t be 50 in Hollywood. You’ll need to lie about your age.”Then he asked me if I had gray hair. I said I did. He said I would need to dye it.I said, “But George Clooney has gray hair. Doesn’t it look distinguished?”He said I would definitely want to dye it. “Everyone dyes their hair in L.A. Get a good hairdresser.”*******He continued relating his experiences. He listed the dangers of Hollywood. They steal your ideas. They lie. They pretend to be your friend. I would need a good lawyer, and a manager, and an agent.Most of this I already knew. But the “you can’t be 50 in Hollywood” part: I hadn’t heard that before.Reelin' In the YearsAfter we hung up, I thought about the age problem. I had already “adjusted” my age once while I was writing young adult novels.I did this after attending a book festival, where I saw that all the other young adult authors were generally in their 20s and 30s. I was at least a decade older than most of them.So I shaved five years off my Facebook age. Just in case anybody looked. And then I did the same thing when I filled out the publicity questionnaires for my publisher.But the age problem got worse when I arrived in L.A. The first screenwriter I met with was 24 and looked like he was in high school. When I got home from that meeting, I went on Facebook and shaved three more years off my birthday.When I did this, a little notice popped up, informing me that this would be the last time I would be allowed to change my birthday on Facebook.So now, I was 41 according to Facebook, 44 according to my New York publisher, and 49 according to my driver’s license and the IRS.This was a lot to keep track of. It made for some awkward moments on first dates.Gray mattersIt didn’t take long to realize that in Hollywood — where lying is considered “self-care” — what people really judged you on was your looks.So then I considered my appearance. My hair was pretty gray. Should I try dyeing it?I went to Ralphs and bought a box of Clairol Nice'n Easy hair dye. I went for espresso brown, which seemed closest to my original hair color.I set up shop in my bathroom. I put on the gloves and followed the instructions on the box, mixing the chemicals and smearing them onto my head. It was a messy business.The hair dye felt like it was burning my scalp. After I rinsed it out, my whole head glowed. Did it make me look younger? I guess it did. But it also made me look like a clown.*******I flew back to New York soon after, and a female friend immediately noticed the change. She said: “It’s true what they say; you look 10 years younger!”That was nice to hear. But I was alarmed that she noticed it instantly. From 50 feet away.Another friend didn’t believe me when I told her it was dyed. She had to look closer and touch it until she saw that I was telling the truth.I was still trying to get used to it myself. Every time I saw my reflection, I startled myself. Who’s that guy with the dye job?RELATED: The left wants to ‘reclaim’ the American flag; did they run out of lighter fluid? Blake NelsonPro tipsBack in L.A., I spotted a sign in a hair salon near my apartment: “Dye and Haircut $80.” Maybe this was the solution: getting your hair dyed by a professional.I would like to say this was a luxurious, pampering experience. It was not. The hairdresser roughed me up pretty good. And then I had to sit there for 40 minutes, in sight of people walking by the window, with a giant plastic covering over me and my thinning hair wrapped in tin foil.And then, after all that, it looked no different from the Clairol dye job I had given myself for $9.99!*******Still, I stuck with it, re-dyeing it every six weeks — like it said on the box — for most of a year.During this time, I kept a watchful eye out for other men with dyed hair. I was definitely not alone. At the beach, you would see aging “surfer dads” with dyed blonde hair and a skateboard under their arms. It wasn’t a terrible look. As long as you wore Vans and board shorts.And of course, men who were on TV or acted in movies always dyed their hair. I’d see these men everywhere. Or I’d see guests on late-night talk shows who looked like they had just had it done an hour before. Their hair had that blurry, fresh-dye glow.I became skilled at spotting dye jobs on either sex. I hadn’t realized how many women dyed their hair: basically all of them, after about 30.The good news was that nobody thought less of a man for dyeing his hair. This was Los Angeles. Dyeing your hair meant you had a job.All is vanityThis wasn’t the case on the East Coast. New York City was the land of the silver fox. Being a well-dressed, gray-haired, 50-year-old male was highly desirable. It meant you were rich!In fact, it was in New York that a couple of female friends intervened and informed me that the hair-dye thing wasn’t working. I looked better being gray.After that, my vanity took over, and when I returned to L.A., I shaved my head and released myself back into middle age.Once I let myself go gray again, another Los Angeles acquaintance told me she thought I looked much better. She said the dye job made me look untrustworthy, like a used-car salesman.*******So that was a relief. But the real relief didn’t come until many years later, when I retired from writing and went back home to Portland and returned to total normalcy.In retirement, I didn’t have to be young; I didn’t have to be cool. I could just be an old, gray-haired person like everybody else.Though on Facebook — thanks to its birthday-changing restrictions — I remain a slightly younger and livelier version of myself.

Born Melanie Safka in Queens, NY, at 22 years-old and essentially an unknown, she performed a star-making set at the 1969 festival. The post Remembering Melanie Who Helped Define a Generation at Woodstock appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

Game, Set, Match: Tennis Star Amanda Anisimova DROPS Reporter Goading Her to Denounce America

Bombshell: Ms. Rachel's Comedian Relative Outs Her as Hiding Jewish Family Ties Amid Antisemitism Scandal

Operation Fakeout: Leftist Hotlines Send Protesters to Biker Bars — Surprise, No ICE, Just Laughs

Fifty-Seven Republicans Betray Freedom: Vote to Keep Government 'Kill Switch' in Your Car

Hot Takes: New VA AG Jay Jones Gets Mocked Into Next Week for Embarrassing Mistake in Post

The more Amazon's product selection expands, the harder it is to find a gadget worth its price. Don't worry, we've done all the hard work already.