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

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was quick.

He kept saying, no, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show.

Now, Charlie's sober.

He's gonna tell you the truth.

How do I present this with a class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

Yeah, aka Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

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 tincise?

Oh, 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 talk to Chip Roy about what's happening on the border.

It's completely out of control.

Sorry, I feel a little about Joe Biden.

You're on the

join here.

I don't know.

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 Blazetv.com slash Glenn.

Promo code is Glenn.

You'll save 10 bucks off your subscription.

And make sure to subscribe, rate, and review to this podcast, and Stew Does 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 Blenbeck 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 the contrast between the way the school board behaved 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 humiliate people who question anything they're doing, don't they?

Yeah, it's been really kind of stunning to see them treat parents,

push parents away, literally.

I mean, I worked on school site consoles, 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 are 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 are 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 was 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 been in school up until recently.

And you can't do that to children.

You can't really do that to people.

We are social by nature.

And in San Francisco, they completely deny this, right?

I think it's, you know, my oldest son

is a freshman in high school, and his school experience is just very different.

He stares into a blank screen.

All his classmates have their cameras turned off.

Right.

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 his desire 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,

for example, one of the commissioners in the school board, just as recently as February, was quoted in, you know, San Francisco Chronicle 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 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 and 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.

Yeah.

I believe as of today they have gotten six out of 108.

So what was the motivation?

Why were they, I mean, you charge that they they never had any intention at all to open schools this year.

Why?

I think it just Honestly, I think it just looks 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 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 five hundred families now and parents that are involved in this recall.

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 group for 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.

And Shiva, 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 was thinking if Shiva wanted to speak to what's going on.

Since our recall effort started and

since the school boards have also been sued, right, kind of at the same time.

Yes.

We have seen a little bit of movement.

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.

And

those other issues are like the renaming of schools?

Yes.

Okay.

And

the

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 grades.

It's like,

I think at 12 schools, there's a couple of grades that are going back.

So that's a little bit of progress.

I just read a story about a couple in Los Angeles or a group of parents now that were meeting with Barry Weiss, 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, 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 very early on when we were exploring the recall, which is about, you know, early in Feb, after we kind of realized how

deep the issues were with the board, is that we saw a lot of parents um 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've 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

be successful it it and it that shouldn't you shouldn't be afraid i mean in democracy you shouldn't be afraid of holding elected leaders accountable right i mean i i 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?

We've seen a lot of support for the recall.

So Autumn kind of talked about some of that.

We've seen 8,000 people sign up.

You know, we've had 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,

who are kind of our focus at this point.

And so

there is a growing, and as people see that others are also interested, there's hundreds 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 friends and to their neighbors, etc.

So we had a lot of enthusiasm from people saying, hey, you know, if we have about 10,000 people sign up, but if

every one of those 10,000 just got 10 signatures, which is essentially our ask, 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 stand

up 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 it.

Thank you for having us.

You bet.

If you want to go to their website, it's

recallsfschoolboard.org.

And you can also follow them on Twitter at recall sfboe.

We also have at Glennbeck.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 have 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, will 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.

But you can check out the initial things at glenbeck.com now.

I've been telling you about RekTech now for, gosh, it's been a year.

And I have to tell you, I am as happy with my Rectech as I was the day it arrived.

I still, I had somebody come onto my back porch and said, What kind of grill is that?

I said, ain't a grill.

That's a RekTech.

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 RekTech.

Sleek and sturdy, built from stainless steel, it's got smart grill technology, which means it automatically adjusts to make sure you get the perfect temperature at all times.

You can monitor and control it from an app so you're inside while it's grilling and smoking or even baking outside.

Rec Tech wins the day.

Follow Rec Tech on all social media.

Sign up for their newsletter at RecTech with a Q at the end.

RekTech.com.

That's R-E-C-T-E-Q.com.

The best of the Glenbeck program.

We have now

Colorado State Senator Jerry Sonnenberg.

Hello, Jerry.

How are you?

Good afternoon or 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 liberties.

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 Boebert 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 can fine 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 stalin, 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 letting it slide.

I don't know if they're supportive, but they sure haven't come out and opposed it.

So you 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

in Colorado?

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.

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 we can hear all of the Democrats talk about how they want to squash free speech.

I don't think that'll 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

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 rallying 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 giants.

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.

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 or based on population, I represent alone in my Senate district 20% of the entire land mass 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, you're representing 20% of the land mass, you have to be affected 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 belongs to the states.

There's no intention of doing anything except 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.

Thank you, and I'll keep you informed.

You bite

This is the best of the Glenbeck program.

This is the Glenbeck Program.

Congressman Chip Roy is quickly working his way up on the Glenbeck Program favorite congresspeople

list.

Welcome to the program.

Chip, how are you, sir?

Well, that's a pretty low bar to make on 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, see if that works.

If not, we might have some more coming up in the future.

You know, the district I represent.

gets 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 Laredo.

I'm going to be going down to McAllen Brown.

So 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 President Biden either purposely and

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 rote incompetence on his part and inability to comprehend 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

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, that it's probably even more than that, but also CBP 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 and releasing.

They're turning DHS into essentially a welcome center in which cartels are empowered and people are then

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 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 obscenely, moving human beings for profit, like $7,000 a head, 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 how to 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, 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 put out a plea to the Biden administration.

This is a Hispanic Democrat in Del Rio saying, Mr.

President, please do your job to secure the border.

Henry Cuear, Vicente Gonzalez, these are congressmen from Texas who are 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, 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 he is and was, and he was, you and I have opposed him for 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 of, 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 he's he's frankly this is the guy who two days ago referred 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 left 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'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 rammed through because even your own party at times doesn't support the ideas 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 were 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 left on full display, not just at our borders, but at our schools where teachers unions are getting paid not to work or to teach America, teach our kids that America is evil.

The veil is being lifted.

We've got to target 2022 and 2024.

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 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.

They're passing $2 trillion 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

fix this in 2022.

Congressman, anything we can do to help you, you please let us know.

The audience is eager for something that actually will make a difference.

And I've been preaching

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 H.R.

1 is completely unconstitutional, completely unconstitutional.

And that stops anything from happening in 2022 or 2025 or 4.

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 H.R.

1, that they not get rid of the filibuster, and they hold the line on this ridiculous federalization of our elections.

And if you're 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

the phones of your legislators to make sure they know you want to see election reform at the state level, too.

We're going to fight H.R.

1.

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, Washington, D.C., stay safe, my friend.

Thank you so much.

God bless you, Glanti.