The Glenn Beck Program - Best of The Program | Guests: Rep. Chip Roy, State Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, & Siva Raj and Autumn Looijen | 3/11/21

Episode Date: March 11, 2021

Parents Siva Raj & Autumn Looijen join to share how they’re successfully fighting against San Francisco’s school board. Colorado state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg shares how his state has turned into a leftist playground, including a new bill that would practically form a "Ministry of Truth." Rep. Chip Roy gives us insight on the border crisis in Texas as the Biden administration continues to downplay it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, happy anniversary. It's the one-year anniversary for the WHO coming out and saying, Panic! It was a pandemic. And we spent a little time today in the podcast talking about how we felt a year ago compared to now. We're going to actually celebrate the anniversary next week. That's when all the lockdowns actually happen. Do we have to get a tree and garland and tinsol?

I've already ordered the cake. Okay. I've already ordered the cake. So happy anniversary. to America and the lockdown. On the podcast today, you're going to get a lot of great news and information. We talked to Chip Roy about what's happening on the border. It's completely out of control.

Sorry, I feel a little about Joe Biden here. What am I doing? We talk about Joe Biden and the lack of press conferences and why that's happening. We also have a senator from Denver, from Colorado, who is talking about this new bill to have a state level, I don't even know what it is, communications board that is going to look for any fake news, any conspiracy theories, and they have a real hammer. If you're spreading any of that online, that could be, Blaze could be accused of that. CBS could be accused of that, you'd get a $5,000 fine every day. And if you have an opinion and you haven't registered and paid the fee for the state, then you're going to be fined as well. It is so Orwellian that it almost is a comedy, all this and more on today's podcast.

Don't forget to subscribe to blazedtiv.com slash glen. Promocode is Glenn. You'll save $10 off your subscription and make sure to subscribe, rate and review to this podcast. And Stu doesn't America available wherever you're listening. And by the way, the podcast for Saturday that comes out here where you're getting your podcast, the podcast for Richard Grinnell. It comes out Saturday here and also comes out today, Thursday, if you're a blaze subscriber. You're listening to the best of the Glenback program. We've all heard about the recall of Gavin Newsom, but in San Francisco, there's a group trying to recall the school board. San Francisco schools are out of control and have been out of control all during this pandemic.

It doesn't seem like they're trying to reopen their schools, just rename many of their schools. Two parents decided to go and listen to what the school board was doing, and they didn't like what they saw. And we have them both on the phone. Shiva Raj and Autumn Loyan, she is the, they both are, the co-founders of Recall San Francisco School Board. Welcome to the program. Thank you. Thank you for having us. You bet. So, Autumn, let's start with you. What was, why did you do this? Why did you get involved? What was the first thing that you saw that you were like, we got to stop just sitting on our hands? We moved here in December from other school districts, and I think for me it was a contrast between the way the school board behave in my kids' school district and the way the school board here behaves.

The way it treats parents and the way it communicates with parents is totally different. And it really bugs me when the people in charge don't take care of and listen to the people who are their constituents. So, Raj, they actually, they humiliate people who question anything they're doing, don't they? Yeah, it's been real to see them, treat parents, push parents away, but today. I mean, I worked on school site councils. I volunteered in schools. And usually schools are, like, desperate for parents to help out. And, you know, in San Francisco, parents have been really, really eager to roll up our sleeves

and help out in every shape possible, you know. We're happy to kind of, you know, move into the schools. clean them up, you know, do up the windows, et cetera. We know that there is a lot of change that's required for the pandemic, for safety, and we're happy to kind of get involved, but they've been pushing us away. They've treated parents who volunteered, for example, there was a gay parent who volunteered to be on the parent advisory council, which is 50% empty, and they spent two hours just criticizing him in public without even giving him a chance to speak.

It's just stunning. they also and this one drives me nuts because I hear this from all kinds of quote unquote experts that the mental health issues are not a problem I know I'm dealing with mental health issues with my kids who have not not been in school up until recently and you can't do that to children you can't really do that to people we are we are social by nature. And in San Francisco, they completely deny this, right? Olderson is a freshman in high school. And his school experience is just very different. He stares into a blank screen. All his classmates have the cameras turned off. Right.

And so I've seen him actually borderline depressed. He does his entire school from his bed. And it's just, you know, for a parent, it's just shattering to see that. And he just seems to have lost entirely, he has decided to learn. And he's a good student. I mean, he used to play football. He was very active and extroverted. So, you know, it's just like a complete change in him. And yeah, we're seeing, you know, the, for example, one of the commissioners in the school board just as recently as February was quoted in, you know, Simon School Chronicles saying, you know, the school closures don't cause mental health issues. They don't cause learning loss. And it's just stunning to see again that there's no recognition. It's one thing to say that, hey, you know, we have a pandemic.

we have to like account for the safety and we have to get this right to get kids back. We recognize that there are real challenges that both parents and students and teachers are facing and we want to do the right thing for everyone. It's one thing to say that. And, you know, all of us would have totally supported the school board if that was the kind of attitude we saw. But it's been the exact opposite. They seem to be completely blind to an unwilling to recognize the real challenges that

students and parents are facing in the school district. So, Autumn, what is the, why? I mean, there's zero public schools in San Francisco that were approved for reopening as of February 26th. Zero. Yeah, they have got six out of 108. So what was the motivation? Why were they, I mean, you charged that they never had any intention at all to open schools this year. Why?

I think it just looked like such a big problem. They threw up their hands and they're like, let's just. pretend it doesn't exist. I don't know why else you would do that when it's your responsibility to take care of so many children and get them back to school so they can learn. I don't know why else you would not have the school sites ready by, you know, January at the very least when the schools were originally slated to reopen. So you guys went to a school board meeting. You listened to it. And then you started a, I think, a Facebook page, if I'm not mistaken. And there are four or 500 families now and parents that are involved in this recall. And, and, you know, and,

And what has happened so far? What changes have you seen just by standing up and doing the basic moves? So we have, our Facebook group is actually our groups are organizing our volunteers. We have over 700 people in there. We have this army of volunteers who help us whenever we want to learn more about an issue or that sort of thing. Yeah. And so do you want to talk about the movement you've seen? I'm sorry.

Go ahead. What was that question? Did you ask me a question? No, no. I think if she ever wanted to speak to what's going on since our recall effort started and since the school board has also been sued right kind of at the same time yes um we have seen a little bit of movement um they are talking about reopening now they are saying that reopening is their first priority and they're kind of shelving the other issues for now um and those other those other issues

are like the renaming of schools yes okay um And so we've seen, I think on April 12th, a few kids are slated to go back in a few schools. So it's not all the grade. It's like, I think at 12 schools, there's a couple grades that are going back. So that's a little bit of progress. So I just read a story about a couple in Los Angeles or a group of parents now that we're meeting with Barry White. formerly of the New York Times, and they were talking about, you know, you can't use our names. You can't put us, you know, on the record because we will lose.

Our kids will suffer from this. There will be a campaign against us. Did that ever concern you or cross your mind? Well, you know, one of the things we saw there early on when we're exploring the recall, which is about, you know, early in February, after we kind of realized how deep the, deep the issues right with the board is that. we saw a lot of parents supportive, a lot of people in the city supportive, non-parents too, right?

But very few people were actually keen to put their names on a recall because they were afraid. And that's understandable. You know, I'm afraid. I have two kids in the school district and I kind of worry about how they'll get treated if this is not successful, right? Isn't that? I mean, that should...

And you shouldn't be afraid. I mean, in democracy, you shouldn't be afraid of holding elected leaders accountable. Right. I mean, that should tell you everything you need to know on why you need to stand up. If you're afraid now at this shift towards this kind of rule, if you will, you're going to be terrified in 10 years. You can't let this sit. You have to stand up. Or do you think people are becoming more willing to or?

We've seen a lot of support for the recall. So Adam kind of talked about some of that. You've seen, you know, 8,000 people sign up. you know, we've had, you know, 30 people put their names on a petition that we just filed with the city and that notice has been sent to each of the three board members who are eligible for recall right now, you know, who are kind of our focus at this point. And so, so there is a growing, and as people see that others are also interested in the Facebook group, there is growing talk across the city, you know, we're seeing people like feeling more comfortable. you know, talking about it to their friends and to their neighbors, etc. So we had a lot of enthusiasm from people saying, hey, you know, if we have about 7,000 people sign up,

but if everyone, all those 10,000 just got 10 signatures, which is essentially our odds, we will hit the 70,000 we need to, you know, get the recall on the ballot. Well, I am so glad to see you guys do this and to lead this and to start to lead the way. Courage is contagious, and that's why I wanted to have you on. We may not agree on all the issues, but people have to... Exactly right.

And people have to stand up for one another and their freedom of speech and stop this madness of this local authoritarian style ruling. Thank you so much. I appreciate. Thank you for having us. You bet. If you want to go to their website, it's recalls. Recall sF school board.org. And you can also follow them on Twitter at Recall SFB-O-E.

We also have at glenbeck.com, something that you need to look at. We have a bunch of groups that you can join all around the country. We have people that are focusing on the teachers unions. Some of them are focusing on school boards. some of them are focusing on parents. We must make this a priority. There is poison being shoveled into our children. If the schools aren't back yet, why?

Why are they not back yet? They have destroyed a year of our children's learning and education. They've set them way back. How much has this cost us in, in their future abilities when they're 18 years old. Nobody's talking about that. Nobody's talking about the physical damage that is being done. Not only the mental,

all kinds of damage is being done. And then when they do open up, they're shoveling garbage into them. This critical race theory, if you happen to be against that, we'll help you start working together and start networking with people, in your own area and people who have done this.

And we're also working on a few things to help you with attorneys. If you start to have real problems and you're fired or whatever because you speak out. We'll have more on that. You can check out the initial things at glenbeck.com now. I've been telling you about rec tech now for, gosh, it's been a year. And I have to tell you, I am as happy with my rec tech as I was the day it arrived. I still, I had somebody come into my back porch and said, What kind of grill is that?

I said, hey, a grill. That's a rec tech. It is amazing. Now, Dallas, it's warm. Even if it's a little cold out where you are, you don't have to stand outside to grill. You're going to be mighty uncomfortable in Minnesota, but not with a rec tech.

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Sign up for their newsletter at RecTech with a queue at the end. RecTech.com. That's R-E-C-T-E-Q.com. The best of the Glenn Beck program. We have now Colorado State Senator Jerry Sonnenberg. Hello, Jerry. How are you? Good afternoon.

morning, sir. It's a pleasure to be with you from the petri dish of the Democrat Party. They throw stuff against the wall here to see if it works before they go nationwide. What happened to Colorado? I mean, it was a state that I would have loved to live in. It is beautiful there, and it's gone crazy. It has. It has turned into the middle coast of the East and West Coast liberal bend and we're struggling here in Colorado and what's happening with all the attacks on our freedoms and liberty. So it's not liberal. This is gone.

This is insane now what they're talking about. There is a new bill out. I know you're aware of it. Senate Bill 21-132 for a digital communications division. Tell me what this bill actually is. Well, the interesting part is the bill is being run by the person that wants to take out Congressman Bobert that has announced for that congressional district. And what she wants to do is allow the governor to appoint a five-member commission with no requirements on political balance, no requirements on any balance whatsoever. and then that commission has the ability to determine what is hate speech, what is fake news.

They make all of those determinations and then confine you. They can also set up fees to all social media platforms, which quite frankly might even include blogs after a news story from a media. whenever somebody makes a comment on social media, that would be regulated by this commission. I mean, is there outrage in Colorado about this? I mean, it seems pretty, you know, Moscow, 1962. This does seem stolen, doesn't it? Absolutely. There is outrage from my side of the aisle, but it's interesting that it's not being

condemned or pushed back against by our governor or leadership in either chamber. They're just kind of latin and slide. I don't know if they're supportive, but they sure haven't come out and opposed it. So you've got to assume that they support this type of effort of squashing our First Amendment rights, free speech, by their silence. Well, I will tell you, they're serious about it in Washington, D.C. Why wouldn't they be serious about it, you know, in Colorado? Is there, is there any chance this passes? I honestly don't think so, but, you know, it depends. Yeah, here's what I'll tell you. It's 2021. Democrats, yeah, the Democrats have not come out and said they oppose it. They have not come out

and said that this is bad policy. So I don't know if it will die or not. The truth is I'd like to have it. I hope it lives through committee and actually gets to the Senate floor. So we have a discussion and we can hear all of the Democrats talk about how they want to squash free speech. I don't think that will happen. I actually think if their leadership is smart, they can't afford to let this go to the floor. They have to kill this attack on our First Amendment. Is there any pushback from the people of Colorado on?

things like critical race. Are you hearing from parents or or anybody about trying to stand the line against some of these things? Absolutely. And interestingly enough, Colorado, rural Colorado especially has become outraged where they have been tried to stay isolated, just do their work in agriculture and those type of things have now become outraged and are rowling. and getting involved. So Colorado, especially the rural parts of the state, have been awakened.

And I want to say that they probably have awakened the sleeping giant. Even though they're small in numbers, they will have a strong, strong voice as this moves forward. I will tell you, it is the giant cities and the cities with all the universities and usually the state capital

that becomes so, infected and they are leaving all of the people in the rural areas way behind. It's, I mean, you think if you listen to the media, it's that we can't talk to one another. And I don't know if that's necessarily true. But with the policies that are being pushed now by the extreme far left and what's happening in Washington, we don't have much left in common. if you're in a big city and you're talking to somebody who lives in, you know, rural Colorado or rural Wyoming or Texas,

you just, you don't understand each other. You're exactly right. It wasn't that long ago that our urban cousins had a generation that was still on the farm, whether it was an uncle or a grandparent, out in rural areas of some state, so they had some tie. We don't have that anymore.

And interestingly enough, the voice is shrinking because you look at as legislators are based on population, I represent alone in my Senate district 20% of the entire landmass of Colorado. That makes it very hard to get a rural message to my urban cousins and the urban legislators. It is, if you're running or representing 20% of the landmass, you have to be effective. by what the government is doing with BLM land and the gobbling up of state land that they've been told twice by the Supreme Court to send it back to the states. It belongs to the states. There's no intention of doing anything except at what it seems to me, roping that land off and not allowing the states to do anything with it. Absolutely. And what we're seeing now is the attempts to try and benefit all of the country through mineral production. on federal lands, that's being shut down as well. So, and you can see it at the gas pump.

Gas now is 70 cents higher than it was in January here in Colorado. I mean, it's pretty easy to figure out what that's attributed to. Yeah. Thank you so much, Jerry. I appreciate it. That is state Senator Jerry Sonnenberg from Colorado. And if you see any movement on this, Senator, if you wouldn't mind, just reaching out in case we miss it.

Otherwise, we'll be watching it as well and reach back out to you. Absolutely. I look forward to talking to you again soon. God bless. And I'll keep you informed. You bet. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. This is the Glenn Beck program.

Congressman Chip Roy is quickly working his way up on the Glenn Beck program favorite Congress people list. Welcome to the program. Chip, how are you, sir? Well, that's a pretty low bar to make more up that list. Well, no, not everybody. We don't have a very long list to be on the list, really. It's like it's an honor just to be nominated.

But let's talk about what's happening on our southern border. And I would like to just put this out there. I'd sure like to go down with you and a camera crew and see and show what's really happening on the border, especially with those cages, which I talked about during the Obama administration. It's not getting better. It's getting worse. Well, Glenn, you're absolutely right. And I'm happy to take up on that. In fact, I got a trip coming up in a few days. I'm happy to talk to your producer, if that works. If not, we might have some more coming up in the future. You know, the district I represent. It's within about 100 miles

of the district. My friend Tony Gonzalez obviously has a whole bunch of it. But I'm going to be going down to, you know, Laredo, I'm going to be going down to McAllen Browns. Look for your listeners, I mean, most of your listeners are well informed. They know how bad it is, but however bad they think it is, it's worse. And it's all purposeful. This is, this is President Biden, either purposely and, you know, willingly seeking to avoid his constitutional duty to secure the border in order to get some crass political gain out of seeming like they're compassionate, or it's frankly just wrote incompetence on his part and inability to compensate. apprehend how bad his policies are, endangering the American people, empowering cartels.

And Glenn, I'll say this, as believers, as people of faith, you know, we're compassionate for the immigrants who seek to come here. I know you are. I've heard you talk about it. So am I. And we've got people who are being used as political pawns who are being endangered, children, families, women and children, being endangered and abused by cartels on the journey. And now you've got these facilities packed with unaccompanied children in and packed in there because of the policies of Biden, which, by the way, they were mocking the last two or three years President Trump's policies, which he was doing to exercise to minimize the danger and push back and work with Mexico and use Title 42 to stop the flow.

What we have right now is 100,000 apprehensions in February. That is an extraordinary number. So you have that confirmed now? I heard that they hadn't come out with a number yet. You can confirm that 100,000? I can confirm that both from sources that I know full well, but it's probably even more than that, but also CPP put out officially yesterday the number that it was over 100,000. Now, here's the number that's not public and not official, but I'll tell you people in DHS, sources,

that they have had about 11,000 people were caught and released in January and February, because of overcrowded facilities. They're literally just catching releasing to turning DHS into essentially a welcome center in which cartels are empowered and people are then, you know, abused in the process. And frankly, it's disgusting what the Biden administration is doing. Even the Mexican officials have come out just recently. And, you know, they were not a fan necessarily of Trump and all of his policies. But they even said, America has got to get this under control.

It is empowering. And it's becoming a bigger business and a bigger moneymaker for the drug cartels than drugs. Well, and the worst part about it is, is you're absolutely right. They're profiting, seemingly moving human beings for profit, like $7,000 ahead, sometimes $20,000, depending on where they come from in the world. And then you've got the drug problem that is now exacerbated and made worse because our Border Patrol are being turned into caretakers, trying to figure out of manage all these people in these facilities, and their eyes are off the ball in terms of between ports of entry. And now they're moving vast quantities of narcotics, fentanyl. And now we've got an addiction problem in this country, and the opioid addiction, which gets worse because cartels are exploiting it and running these dangerous narcotics through our border, all because Biden wants to say in the false name of compassion that his policies are somehow pro-immigrant. And it's a lie. It's a dangerous lie. And look, in Texas, we're feeling it. High-speed chases, people's homes getting broken into. The mayor of Del Rio, you know, put out a plea to the Biden administration. This is a Hispanic Democrat in Del Rio saying,

or president, please do your job to secure the border. Henry Quayar, Vicente Gonzalez, these are congressmen from Texas who are, you know, saying to the president, your administration is failing and not doing your job to actually do what needs to be done to make the border work. So it's unfortunate, but I think and hopefully the American people are going to see it, but of course the mainstream media, they're not going to report it like they were when Alexandria was down there lying about kids drinking out of toilets or kids in cages. So, Congressman, why is Biden not aware? Is he plugged into enough stuff? Or is there something else going on?

You know, this is, I think, a $64,000 question. The Joe Biden of a decade ago, however liberal that he is and was, and he was, you and I have opposed him for, you know, decades. But I don't think the Biden of a decade ago, and in fact, if you look at the policies under Obama Biden, as bad as they were, They were nothing like this. I think that he is being bullied and, frankly, just steamrolled because, frankly, a certain level of either competence or engagement that isn't there, at least as it used to be, and that now the policies are, frankly, really troubling. Because I don't think an American president would ever willingly look at this border and say to the American people, it's secure. There is no crisis.

But he's allowing his DHS secretary to say that. And he's frankly, this is the guy who two days ago referred to. to the Secretary of Defense as that guy who runs that outfit over there. I mean, this is extremely troubling. And I think that what we're seeing right now is the radical lefts take advantage of a weak president and use it to jam through an unbelievably horrid agenda for crass political purposes. And the blood is on their hands for doing it. So this is why people have dropped listening to news. They've, they've, they're just, they're unplugging because the problems are getting way too big.

And it doesn't seem like anybody is either interested in doing something or people like you can't get things, can't get things ram through because even your own party at times doesn't support the ideas of, of people that believe in the Constitution. What is the solution here? Well, you're not wrong about, frankly, that some of the default falls on Republicans who, for too long, we're ignoring the problem at the border instead of doing what we should have done when we have majorities to do it. But here we sit, and we're looking at what's happening. And so what we need to do is be faithful people, know that now that the veil is being lifted for the American people. They're seeing the radical up on full display, not just that our borders, but at our schools where teachers are getting paid not to work or to teach America, teach our kids that America's evil. The veil is being lifted. We got a target 2022 and 224.

And right now, turn to your governors, turn to your states. Make them, particularly, you border states. And Texas is one obviously that I'm proud to live in. And, you know, Governor Abbott mentioned or launched his Lone Star project last week to try to, you know, empower DPS. Remember during the Obama years, Texas spent almost a billion dollars working to try to secure the border ourselves using DPS, even though it's a full federal responsibility. states are going to need to start pushing back on a federal government that is not just ignoring the borders, but they're trying to take your guns away. They're defunding police. There's passing two trillion dollar bills that remake your health care system.

They're running away from Israel. They're empowering Iran. They're moving a radical agenda across that green agenda coming right down our throats in the bureaucracy. So we're going to fight at the state level, and the American people need to make this fix this in 2022. Congressman, anything we can do to help you? please let us know. The audience is eager for something that actually will make a difference. And I've been breaching the same message from this pulpit every day that it has to be fixed locally.

And every state has to stand against this onslaught. What was passed in HR1 is completely unconstitutional, completely unconstitutional. And that stops anything from happening in 20. 22 or 2025 or four. Well, and Glenn, let me just say to any of your listeners out there in West Virginia, Arizona, and other states with senators that need to listen, burn their phones down, that they not pass HR1, that they not get rid of the filibuster, and they hold the line on this ridiculous federalization of our elections,

and if you're in a state like Texas or frankly, any state, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, any of the places that had issues last year, burn down the doors of your legislators to make sure they know you want to see election reform at the state level too. We're going to fight HR1. We'll keep fighting. We'll get back in power in 2022 and try to fix some of this, but states need to lead the way. So get them to pass legislation. We're working on an effort to do that and set the principles out to encourage states to fix this. Representative Chip Roy from the great state of Texas and Washington, D.C. Stay safe, my friend. Thank you so much.

God bless you. Go on. Take it.