Blog
LatestArticlesVideosHands-On History
Radio
LivePodcastSerialsStations
TV
Podcast
Show Prep
Events
Restoring the Covenant
More
AboutBooksCharityReal EstateSponsorsShopContact
SEARCH
Live Radio

©2022 MERCURY RADIO ARTS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Riaz Patel: I Am Really Frustrated With Liberals Right Now

January 20, 2017
 Staff

WRITER

Alert the media. There is alive today at least one liberal more interested in facts than identity politics, in people than labels. TV producer and humanitarian Riaz Patel joined Glenn on Friday to continue their discussion about bringing people together and healing the divide.

"I'm not interested in the politics space, but I'm interested in the humanity space," Patel said. "When you know people who have lives and situations that are completely different from yours that voted for Trump for very specific reasons, for their family's welfare, you tell me how you can hate them once you meet them and see their home that slipped off the foundation ten years ago, but they can't afford to move. That is the humanity that's out there if people can get past the labels. And that's what we have to do."

GLENN: Welcome to the program. We're bringing in Riaz Patel who you might remember is the guy before the election went to Alaska on his own dime. How would you describe yourself politically?

RIAZ: I would say -- well, funny I was Democrat. Democrat liberal, but I'm understanding a whole segment of America I didn't understand before.

GLENN: Right. And you've kind of done what we've done before. Unchained yourself from the label of liberal or Democrat, and you want to end the hatred and the black and white of everything; right?

RIAZ: It's too black and white. That's where media plays, and that's what my profession is. I come from media. And, to me, when you're talking about the safe space, it really is a direct product of what the media has done for two years.

GLENN: Let's talk about the safe space. We just heard in Ohio and also Connecticut. They're bringing in grief counselors today for the teachers and for the children who might be experiencing any kind of discomfort with Donald Trump being the president.

RIAZ: It's less about the discomfort and more about for two years, you were taught that there was nothing positive about this man. That it was like electing Hitler. For two years. There was not one positive thing he said. Now, I am not a Trump supporter. That being said if you're unfair and uneven about news, why are you vilifying? So the result of him winning created this panic that we elected a monster. And that's the direct product of how the media portrayed him for two years.

GLENN: Hang on just a second. That is a different way of looking at it, isn't it? I just associated that with the progressive Namby Pamby I never tied the media and said it is the way he's been portrayed. It actually helps me validate their feelings.

RIAZ: We know this because when you talk to families on the democratic side that I've talked to, the children are unable to get their heads around it. Because in their homes, through their TVs, and to their phones, this monster was running for president against Hillary Clinton. And then when the monster won, they don't know what to do. And I remember on the night of the election, every single parent I know said how do I explain this in the morning to my kids? And I thought why don't they think it's a presidential election? Why don't -- why do they think that humanity is at stake? And I remember being on a parenting panel and a woman said to me "My daughter was at a neighbor's house, and they were discussing politics, and she came home at 2:00 a.m. because she felt unsafe." And everyone said congratulations for teaching your daughter to remove herself out of an unsafe situations. And I sat on a parenting panel as the only male and said, "A little bit shame on you. How long have you known these neighbors?" And she said about a decade.

Why would your daughter ever feel unsafe in a house for someone she has known for a decade? That is the media. The conflict-driven entertainment of reality seeped in, which obviously Donald Trump came from. They taught him how to do this, seeped into every aspect for the past two years of election coverage. It became a reality show. If you saw the CNN ads where they looked like these fighters. It literally looked like a heavy weight fight. The conflict-driven set up of this whole election made it that Hillary had to within win. Had to win. It was the only right choice. Right and wrong. And wrong won. How do you explain to the kids at Ohio state that wrong one? Because you don't understand the other side.

When I went to Alaska, I found the other side, and it's very hard to hate people when they're looking at you saying I hate people for eight long years. And people going to the march, and it was down right mean.

An amazing woman that wrote for Muslims specifically --

GLENN: By the way, so people know, Riaz is Muslim Pakistani immigrant. You've lived here how long?

RIAZ: Most of my life.

GLENN: Okay. And gay man who is married and has an adopted child. So there is no more boxes you can check.

RIAZ: No.

GLENN: For people that we are not supposed to get along with.

RIAZ: I have them all. You have the whole system with me. We don't need to collect the cards. I've got them all.

GLENN: And we had dinner last night. Our family joined Riaz last night for dinner. And what was nice was beforehand, we had a meeting and a bunch of people from the office. And the president of my company is a Jew and obviously he wears the yarmulke and everything else. And here's a Muslim man and Jewish man, and we're all joking together, and we're joking -- he's joking about the Jew building a settlement. Comes over and is, like, don't build a settlement over here. And the Jew is, like, fill a bag of nails and blow me up, and we were all laughing about it.

RIAZ: You have to.

GLENN: Because we were joking about the stereotypes that have kept us apart.

RIAZ: Yes. Yes. and, to me, the only way to live with these labels is to make it funny. When I'm around those labels, those labels are too important. I believe honestly important. This Facebook post was the meanest thing I've seen. They said they got on the bus to DC with all of these Trump supporters with all of these white women. And I thought you're on a march about women's rights and literally on a Facebook thread like mean girls attacking a group of white girls who got on the van. How is this a new era of celebration when even the women, the feminists are attacking the other women? And they'll say, well, women don't support each other.

Well, you're not supporting the women on that van right now. I was literally -- it was after we had dinner. I was utterly shocked. And I think they really need to wake up.

GLENN: So, Riaz, I get a lot of mail from people who say "What you're trying to do is not going to work. Nobody is interested in getting along. The left will never change, and I mean, I'm disappointed in my own side.

RIAZ: Uh-huh.

GLENN: But I will tell you I get very frustrated and tired at times of going on and talking to people in the press and saying "Look, I understand how you feel." Do you understand how I feel?

And they don't have any care to even think about it.

RIAZ: Because they think they know what's best for you.

GLENN: Correct?

RIAZ: And this is something I'm really trying to get people -- again, I'm not interested in the politics space, but I'm interested in the humanity space. When you know people who have lives and situations that are completely different from yours that voted for trump for very specific reasons for their family's welfare, you tell me how you can hate them once you meet them and see their home that slipped off the foundation ten years ago. But they can't afford to move. That is the humanity that's out there if people can get past the labels. And that's what we have to do. We have to do.

GLENN: So how do we talk to somebody, Riaz, that is, you know, encouraging their kids to -- well, let's put it this way. Do you know -- who is the -- he's ABC -- George Stephanopoulos. I read an article without anybody saying, like, "This is weird. This is dangerous."

George Stephanopoulos' young, like, 12-year-old daughter has had to sleep in bed with them at night for, like, the week after the election because they were so upset.

RIAZ: Yeah.

PAT: Scared, I believe is the word they used.

GLENN: And my thought is what the hell is being said in that home by a quote objective reporter that makes your 12-year-old sleep in bed with you at night because they're afraid?

RIAZ: I would love to know that families and children who didn't live off of a two-year diet of liberal doomsday with trump, if they are as traumatized and scared. Even the ones who lost. Just to know.

GLENN: You met my kids last night.

RIAZ: Uh-huh.

GLENN: My kids -- I mean, everybody -- every liberal would say my kids of course have had a steady diet of fear mongering. Did you think --

RIAZ: No. Not at all. Because there's the discussions you have in the world and then the humanity at home. I don't think we can say your beliefs are wrong. It doesn't work for either side. To me, it's here's what you don't know about me. Here's what you don't know about my life. Here's the way to start the conversation. If I go attack your beliefs, we're not going to end up anywhere. We're going to dig another two years or longer.

To me, here's what you don't know about my life. And that's the way to understand why somebody voted differently. Why somebody believes differently. Why did you make the choices you make? And then beliefs. You're a deadlock. There's no way around that. And so, to me, it's here's what you don't know about me. As much as you want what's best interest for me, this is me. Why don't I tell you what's in best interest for me? And I think that's the way you begin the conversation is this is what you don't know about me. And everyone can do it on both sides. I think the two-year diet of conflict and rage that came from reality TV -- look, we all watch what most of us watch. If people don't want to watch conflict, it will be there as much. So my hope is after this election, we've reached conflict saturation with media. And that people I believe -- I believe your viewers right now they're driving a pickup truck or Tesla, it doesn't matter. They want this to stop. The inauguration day to me is the day we breathe and move on.

So I am hopeful because now this constant yelling about the election is gone. There will be constant yelling, but at least we can move on with our lives, and we know what the truth is for four years.

Mom says middle school invited daughter to secret LGBTQ+ club, 'did UNTHINKABLE things with the children'

Image source: Video screenshot

A Colorado mother of three, Erin Lee, said her 12-year-old daughter was recruited by teachers to attend an "art club" after school, only to find it was a GSA or Gay Straight Awareness/Alliance Club. Not only was the family misled about the purpose of the club, but a guest speaker — who told the middle school students that "if they're not fully comfortable in their bodies, that means they're transgender" — also encouraged the kids to keep secrets from their parents.

Lee told Glenn Beck on the radio program Monday that her "shy, vulnerable, barely 12-year-old daughter" had just moved to Wellington Middle School in Fort Collins, Colorado, when she was invited by her art and home room teachers to attend an "art club" after school.

"She texted us [and] we gave her permission for art club," Lee said of her daughter. "When she got there, it was actually GSA, or Gender and Sexuality Awareness or Alliance Club. The teacher had invited in a completely unqualified outside presenter who did unthinkable things with the children. I'll give you the CliffsNotes version. She told them, 'what you hear in here, keep in here.' She used flags to use defining words, telling them if they're not fully comfortable in their bodies, that means they're transgender. Then she would hand out the fags and stickers and bracelets and other swag. She told them that 'queer' is a label for when they're still figuring out their sexuality.

She did the 'Genderbread person,' which explicitly asked kids who they're sexually attracted to, so 11, 12, 13-year-olds with peers and adults in the room, talking about their sexuality. She handed out her personal contact information and invited them to connect on teen chat platforms, like WhatsApp and Discord, where she knows that parents are not monitoring the conversation. She told them that families may not be safe, and it's okay to lie about where they are. And in fact, the art teacher, as my daughter was leaving the room that day, pulled her aside and said, 'remember, you don't have to tell your mom.'"

The outside presenter, Kimberly Chambers, is the director of SPLASH Youth of Northern Colorado, an organization that targets children as young as 5 years old, as indicated on its own website. Chambers is a paid employee of the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment with access to children’s information, according to a Parents Defending Education incident report.

Lee went on to say that, after learning from her daughter what happened, she and her husband contacted the school principal, who confirmed that the meeting was, in fact, held in secret and they are always held in secret because as a public school they have to offer children a "safe space." Lee then turned to the school board, but said she was ignored "for months." Finally, she was able to meet with board member Kristen Draper, who turned out to be a close friend and "strong ally" to Chambers. Draper also volunteers for an arm of SPLASH called SKITTLES.

"FOIA emails showed that [the school] immediately colluded when I objected to what happened," Lee told Glenn. "They immediately colluded with the school board to keep me quiet. They referenced parents who find out as 'barriers' that the school board has removed. They talked about sending social services into my home because I didn't like what they did with my child," she continued.

"My daughter had never expressed gender dysphoria before. She never expressed that she'd had any trouble at home. They never spoke to me. I never spoke to any of the people that did these things before they decided to talk about calling CPS ... In the state of Colorado, if my child had said to the CPS that I wasn't affirming her transgender identity, I firmly believe they would have removed her from the home. And the people knew this when they suggested that CPS come to our home to remove our child," Lee warned. "Colorado is off the rails in particular, but this is happening everywhere."

Watch the video clip below for more details:

Can't watch? Download the podcast here or listen to the episode highlights below:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

'This will make your head EXPLODE': Glenn Beck spotlights Biden admin's devastating plans for VA funding

Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images

The House approved a new aid package for Ukraine of nearly $40 billion, which will increase the total U.S. funding for Ukraine's war efforts to a whopping $58 BILLION since March, if the package passes in the Senate. Meanwhile, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before Congress that the Biden administration is considering diverting resources away from an already-struggling VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) to deal with the border crisis.

"I am not making this up -- this will [make] your head explode," Glenn Beck said in the radio program Thursday. "They are going to divert costs; the Biden administration is taking money from the VA. Now already, our veterans get seconds, and we are [considering] diverting VA funding, and doctors, and nurses, away from our vets and to the migrants at the border, so we can take money that we don't have, $58 billion, and send it to Ukraine. What the hell is wrong with us?"

"Now, some Republican lawmakers are attempting to fight this," he added. "But, most people haven't even heard of this. This is how the atrocities at the border go unchecked. Biden sweeps it all under a rug. The mainstream media covers it up. And, meanwhile, people suffer and die. And in this case, it's not only the people on the border, but it is also our veterans in VA hospitals."

Glenn went on to detail the unreported deadly consequences of Biden’s border policies which have led to enough fentanyl to kill millions of Americans pouring across the border and terrorists having found easy paths into our country.

Watch the video clip below to hear more from Glenn:

Can't watch? Download the podcast here or listen to the episode highlights below:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Biden’s border bloodbath: The deadly crisis EXPOSED

Corruption, greed, and death. This is what the Left’s border policy is REALLY about, not the humanitarian effort they claim it is.

On tonight's episode of "Glenn TV," Glenn Beck exposes the groups benefitting from the border chaos under the Biden administration. A leftist money supply flows to NGOs on the border that are now taking the roles that the government should be filling with immigration and helping immigrants to flood into the U.S. Glenn asks: Why is the U.N. funding the flow of migrants to our border and subverting Congress? Why are former Biden staffers working for “non-profits” that are now getting exclusive, HIGHLY irregular multimillion-dollar border contracts? Worse than that, the consequences of Biden’s border policy have now turned deadly. National Guard members at the border are dying, fentanyl from China pours across the border, and terrorists have found an easy path to enter our country.

Finally, Glenn asks Texas Rep. Chip Roy if it’s time to impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas for his negligence that is costing American lives.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

Painful letter details the horrors of abortion and why this listener can no longer remain silent

Flickr

I can no longer relate to the modern pro-choice woman. I don’t want to shout my abortion. I want to pretend it never happened. Up until the SCOTUS leak, I had done a pretty good job of burying my 20-year secret. But the Roe v. Wade information earthquake triggered an eruption. I can no longer pretend to be ambivalent or leave it to blue-check pro-lifers to speak for me. My days of repeating the “safe, legal, and rare” mantra like a good, GenX libertarian feminist are over.

Some pro-abortion activists call their life-ending procedure “self-care,” like they just booked a hot stone massage or a facial at a spa. This is a polite euphemism many women tell themselves – not because we are cold-blooded killers, but because it’s how we survive. We HAVE to lie in order to justify what is actually taking place. Denial is a protective coating, a barrier from the truth. Remember, any woman born after Roe v. Wade has been programmed to believe that abortion is a natural-born right. “It’s legal; therefore it must not be evil. This is a medical procedure. Women do it every day.” Planned Parenthood has a nice way of describing abortion on its website: “A doctor uses a combination of medical tools and a suction device to gently take the pregnancy tissue out of your uterus.” “Gently take the tissue out.” Benign euphemisms that wrap our hearts and minds in a suffocating cocoon. Benign euphemisms to keep us in line.

I was raised in the Bible Belt and to believe that sex before marriage was the gravest of sins. You’d be better off robbing a store by pistol than to be caught fornicating with a boy. And yet I did fornicate with a boy. No boy I’d ever be proud to bring around to my parents. I never gave him the option to talk me out of it. I just demanded he pay half for the procedure and never speak of it again. I told myself it would be easier to survive the hidden shame of the abortion than wear the shame of my sin on my belly for the next nine months.

...the pill I took made an ugly, painful mess, and it didn’t finish the job.

I took the so-called “easy” way out at six weeks along and swallowed a pill I got from some abortionist who gave me the creeps. He was no medical saint like the one portrayed in “The Cider House Rules,” nobly saving women from coat-hanger abortions. The doctor in my story made a quick buck at the expense of terrified “good girls.” Years later I would learn he kept aborted fetuses in buckets and was under investigation for shady medical practices. I couldn’t leave his clinic fast enough, but at least I wouldn’t have to miss work or skip my college classes. I could finish my degree and still make my parents proud. How convenient. But the pill I took made an ugly, painful mess, and it didn’t finish the job. Now I had to see a real obstetrician, get an ultrasound, and deal with the aftermath.

This doctor’s office was nicer. It had bright lights and pink walls. Although my doctor was professional, I still felt the quiet judgment in her voice. I refused to look at the image of my tortured fetus on the screen. I knew what it would mean if I did – my feminist career ambitions would lose the battle to my soul if I looked at that baby. The doctor told me the fetus was still viable but likely mentally damaged. The “kinder” thing to do would be to finish the job at an in-clinic abortion. End the fetus’ suffering and end my own self-torture. I woke up from anesthesia to learn the abortion was complete. It’s over so quickly, but the internal conflict hangs. And hangs.

You find weird ways to cope. Not long after, I discovered an abandoned robin’s egg, still perfectly intact. I wrapped it in a sock and carried it with me for over a decade. If I couldn’t do right by my own child, maybe I could keep this unhatched egg safe. Eventually, I had to come to terms with the fact that the bird egg was dead, and I got therapy. He was a good New York psychologist. Secular, liberal, tolerant. He helped me to forgive myself, but I always knew who I really needed to ask for forgiveness …

It’s easy for a young woman with all those stockpiled eggs in her ovaries to be pro-choice. She can toss away the miracle of life like a rotten banana or a bruised apple because it is easily replaced. It wasn’t until I was forced to confront the mortality of my own fertility that I felt the full force of my regret.

But I do not write this letter to achieve redemption or to be the new face of the pro-life movement. You will not see me pleading with women outside an abortion clinic. You will not see me protesting with a cutesy, homemade sign at the March for Life. You will not see me sparring on Twitter, confronting baby-killers with cold, hard facts. For now, you will not even know my name. I suppose this is not very brave, but my story is not complete and God’s work in me is in an active state. Mine is a modest mission: Maybe if I’m honest about my own wounds, I can help other women like me to heal. Maybe I can love the terrified, knocked-up woman in the Bible Belt who believes the best worst lies our society has ever told, better than any conservative talk show host ever could.

The SCOTUS leak ripped a band-aid off a festering 50-year-old wound.

The SCOTUS leak ripped a band-aid off a festering 50-year-old wound. It’s naive to think we will fix this mess for the unborn overnight and deprogram men and women plugged into 50 years of slick, well-packaged lies. Slavery was legal in the U.S. for over 200 years before we fought a war to end it. And it was another 100 years before we ended state-sanctioned racism.

When it comes to the issue of defending innocent life, I know it’s hard to be patient. This is a clear battle of good vs. evil for many on the right, but you need allies like me – the former “safe, legal, and rare” pro-choicers who are afraid to come out of the shadows. Afraid to become a political prop in the culture wars, but willing to do the quiet missionary work in our back yards.

I hope for the day future progressives look back in horror at today’s progressives fighting to keep abortion on demand. I hope for the day the New York Times publishes the pro-life version of the 1619 Project. Maybe they’ll call it the “1973 Project,” “whose mission is to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of abortion and the contribution of the pro-life movement at the very center of our national narrative.”

Until that day, I want to help these women to be braver than me. To see beyond their impossible tomorrow. If I had allowed someone the chance to help me be brave, I might not have had the same successful career, but I would have a 20-year-old son or daughter in whom to invest this unexplained overflow in my heart.