2/11/26: Cuba Regime Change, Trump Threatens Iran, Nest Surveillance, AIPAC Crushed In NJ

29:11It doesn't matter if you have a subscription. We're watching. Yeah. And who's back in? The NSA is like. It's crazy. Cash would be a little more forthcoming about where this footage came from. Back end systems. Yeah. So, once again, everybody's suspicion feels like these things are listening to me. No, you're crazy. They're not listening to you. Oh, later admit. Yeah, they're actually listening to you. Or just disconnect it, right? If you're worried, just disconnect it. Yeah, and it's not storing the footage if you don't have a subscription or if you don't pay for the, like, higher-end subscription.

29:46Yep. I got my car stolen and the police were like, got the footage. And I was like, no. But it turns out maybe they did. It's like we don't pay for any. Well, now we do. We pay for everything and don't come anywhere near us. But at the time, we did not. And so we don't have the footage because we don't have paying for this storage or whatever. Well, the local police might not. The federal government might, to your point. Exactly. Somebody's got it. Because the local police said, well, she didn't have a subscription. It was disconnected. And then the FBI sweeps in a week later and says, we got it from back-end systems.

30:24The argument, of course, is going to be, if we find out, they're going to say that it's stored, it's encrypted and only used for training these AI systems or whatever, which is not innocuous. It doesn't even sound innocuous, but there's potentially just a capitalist explanation behind all of this. There's probably something darker, too, if this turns out to be the case, but it's that they're training their AI. Even if you don't have a subscription, they're training their AI, and you never have access to it. So insane, insane detail that people were right to pick up on when you have the local sheriff saying no subscription is disconnected.

30:59And then the FBI swooping in a week later and saying, we've recovered the video. Quite interesting. And we'll see this. This is a new development. So we're going to have to see how Google responds. And speaking of completely insane things, we didn't cover this because we don't know what the F is going on. But as you may have seen, the FAA announced that for 10 days they're closing the airspace over El Paso. This happened early this morning. Yeah, they're now saying that they're like, what, shooting at drones, like cartel drones. That's a highly suspicious answer. What on earth is going on in El Paso?

31:37So we know that they have Camp Montana, the massive detention facility inside Fort Bliss, shutting it all down for 10 days. Did they catch some aliens? Actual aliens, not like illegal, like extra, I mean, like not from Mexico aliens. In about a matter of like two hours, they went from a 10-day closure to just a total removal of the FAA notice. So it's back open? It's back open. So you can bet Sagar will have thoughts on that for tomorrow's edition of Breaking Points. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

32:24When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. NLP, aka Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain. It's about engineering consciousness. Mind Games is the story of NLP, its crazy cast of disciples, and the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune and sold it to guys in suits.

33:03He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all? NLP might actually work. This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead up to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bowen. Hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey Matt, hey Bowen. Hi Cookie. Hi. Now the Winter Olympic Games are underway. We are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys, Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

33:52Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated. And Black America was at a breaking point. Writing and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago.

34:37This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ryan, close us out here with this interview you did with a New Jersey Dem primary candidate. So Annalilia Mejia defeated a wide field of candidates, including the local party boss, including the AIPAC-supported candidate, and including former Representative Tom Malinowski, who had been polling slightly ahead, although Mejia was always a very credible candidate in this race because she had the backing of AOC, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, the entire kind of infrastructure, plus all the momentum behind it.

35:27But there was a moment in the primary for people who were paying close attention in the district that went viral locally and even a little bit nationally at a Care New Jersey forum. All of the candidates were asked in a kind of repeat of the New York Mamdani debate. But they were asked, will you refuse an AIPAC-sponsored, a pro-Israel lobby-sponsored trip to Israel only? And do you believe that Israel is committing a genocide? Let's roll that clip because I think you're going to see how she kind of separated herself here. By a shown hand, we here would publicly decline to participate in a freshman congressional trip to Israel sponsored by pro-Israel foreign advocacy organizations.

36:20Do you agree with the United Nations Commission of Anchory and many other human rights organizations that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza? Show of hands if you agree with the United Nations inquiry that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza. Wow. Please stop right now because this is not a fair question. Because genocide is dividing world. Okay, so we didn't have to keep away with each other. One side or the other. And Jimmy Carter, who's the only person who's ever at peace in the least, you cannot get peace. You cannot get peace if you use your time. Sorry. Thank you, Justin. And so last night, while Emily was out partying at this YouTube conference, I sat down with Annalilia Mejia.

37:09Not just me, producers Mac and Griffin. Mac and Griffin. Don't explain me. There's like a conference in D.C. for creators. We have to wrap soon because Emily's going to do a panel with Sagar. Is that right? Who's on the panel? Somebody's on the panel. In any event, so this is a prerecorded interview from last night with Mejia, who is now on her way, is the Democratic nominee for this district, and the special election is coming up in April against a Republican challenger there. She'll then have to recompete for the primary in June. Here's my conversation with Mejia. Joining us now is Annalilia Mejia, who just yesterday was declared the official victor.

37:53Tom Malinowski on Tuesday conceded that there wouldn't be enough votes for him to mount a comeback with the final tallies in New Jersey's 11th district, which makes her the Democratic nominee headed towards the general election. Annalilia, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's nice to see you again. It's been a while. Nice to see you too. It has been. And one of the kind of privileges that I get in kind of covering the progressive world now for 20 years or so is to see people move from one organization to another and one cause, all the same cause. Yeah. Watch them kind of rise through the ranks.

38:36And then once in a while, somebody becomes a member of Congress that you don't expect. Uh, and you and me both, you and me both. And in your, uh, advocacy world, uh, we refer to those people as electeds. Yes. I don't know. I don't know if the regular people know that it's a weird phrase cause it's not, I don't know. What kind of word is that? Electeds. Yeah. I usually, I shorten it to EO, elected official. I'm like, that's an EO. That's an EO over there. So now you are on the way to becoming an EO. So let's, first of all, tell people the general election. Kamala Harris won this district by, what, eight points or something like that?

39:15So what, there's a moderate, well, they call them moderate. So we'll borrow the mainstream media's phrasing there. Republican running in this district. What's this, what's the race looking like? And when is the general election for this special? I mean, I'm going to say I reject the idea that my opponent is actually a moderate. I think anyone that won't denounce what the Trump administration is doing, won't openly denounce what ICE is doing to American citizens, won't openly denounce the turning of weaponry on American citizens that are protecting and exerting their constitutional rights. That is extremism to me.

39:56But I, you know, this special election was to fill the seat vacated by Mikey Sherrill when she became governor. Candidates essentially had 10 weeks to run the most compressed timeline. That 10 week period began in Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving week when we had to collect signatures to get on the ballot. Vote by mail ballots were released right before on December 22nd, right before the holidays. And then we held the special primary on Thursday, February 5th. That's a Thursday only in Jersey, y 'all. But we were able to emerge victorious, even though, you know, I jumped in late. But we as organizers, if you know, as you shared, I come from movement.

40:44I ran the New Jersey Working Families Party. I obviously I worked for Bernie. I was his national political director. and my day job has been to be the co-director of the Center for Popular Democracy, which is this network of base building, power building organizations. But, you know, we as an organizer, someone with that kind of experience would hit the ground. We knocked on doors, hundreds of thousands of phone calls, and we emerged victorious almost two to one on election day, which I feel really proud about. And what's so intimidating to me about congressional districts is their vast size, like 700 ,000 or plus people.

41:26Like that's just a staggering number of people. You can't meet every single one of them. Now, in a primary like this, you end up needing, you know, a much smaller handful of votes. So when you went into this race, we're talking about North Jersey. Like, yeah, me. Now they're working class parts of every congressional district. So it's this is suburban Jersey. This is a commuter town. Folks usually live here because they work in the city. They want access to the infrastructure. You know, they're pursuing green space or school. They work in finance. They work in pharma. Like a ton of pharma. So you won, you know, hedge funds, hedge fund guys, hedge fund women, private equity, pharma execs.

42:15Like, how? Like, what did you do? Well, the first thing I'll tell you is I live in this district. Even progressives live in the burbs. I've been here for 13 years. Some of them, some of us. Here's the deal. The truth is this economy is hitting everybody. See, when you double and triple health care costs, even it's individual, you know, small business owners, professionals, doctors, lawyers, architects, my neighbors were all complaining about the fact that they could no longer afford health care insurance. Right. And to manage their families when child care costs are upwards of twenty four, twenty eight, thirty thousand dollars a year.

43:02I pay$24 ,000 a year for child care. So when you're talking about that kind of expense, or we may not turn, we may not spiral off the price of eggs, but you combine all those things, rising health care costs, rising child care costs, you know, these tariffs impacted small business owners wildly. And so you combine all of that, that was impacting community. I've lived I'm an organizer. I talk to my neighbors. I knew it. So my message was we need to remove the stranglehold that big money has on our economy and our democracy. We have to remember that an oligarch is or an authoritarian is simply a corrupt politician who has gotten a taste from stealing from the people and they want to keep the grift going.

43:57So they have to be they have to deter any kind of accountability. And an oligarch is essentially a corporate interest that has gotten the taste of stealing from their consumers, from their clients, from their workers. and they want to keep the grift going. And so they need less regulation in order to keep the jig up, right? And so the thing that stands between the authoritarian and the oligarch is an informed community. So I was knocking on doors, talking to people, pointing that out. And that message resonated with folks. Yeah, in my own life, I've talked to plenty of these upper middle-class professional types.

44:34And they know that I have been kind of covering the Bernie AOC world for as long as they've known me. And so they'll talk to me at the soccer games or whatever about this stuff. And 2014, 15, 16, there was a lot of hostility from them to that world. Like they saw him as kind of hostile to their interests and what they thought the Democratic Party ought to be because these are mostly Democrats for the most part. You know, that started to soften a little bit with AOC. But 2020, they were still quite skeptical of Bernie. but now they're like i think think bernie actually was right um they're they're open to him uh they're definitely open to uh aoc who like they now think of as like a normie democrat and i think part of it is that they believe that they're probably okay themselves although they're not necessarily sure um yeah but they're very worried about their kids about what this country's becoming and right for their kids these are not the types of people that have like generational wealth they can they're going to help their kids.

45:37They send them to nice schools. They're going to help them through college, but they're not going to like set them up for life. And so did you see that too? Like what, what is absolutely, absolutely. I had folks talk about how they may be able to afford, they may have been able to afford to buy a home, but they're worried about what's going to happen to their children. And the fact that private equity firms are buying up starter homes resonates with them and angers them. Talking about how we have to regulate that hits a nerve because they could see that this basic thing that they took for granted for themselves is going to be out of reach for their children.

46:17When I talked to folks about, like I said, health insurance, I talked to a neighbor whose husband is a doctor. They are professionals and they were discussing shifting from comprehensive health insurance to catastrophic so that they could continue to afford their child's tuition. And this is a doctor. So we have across this district what I know, what I've learned in the 13 years that I've lived here, talking to my neighbors, engaging people, and this is probably true across America, that in our communities, you know, especially places in which, you know, on paper seem like they are economically stable, right?

46:59High home ownership, high education levels, people stretch to be here. And so if you lose a client, if you're a contractor, you lose a client, or if the prices for your small business go up, or just the instability of the moment make creates that precariousness, you start to spin, you increase your dependence on credit card debt or credit cards. You find yourself in credit card debt. Maybe you are house rich, but cash poor. And so this economy is in fact hitting working class, working poor, and middle class people. And it's not surprising because we have an unfair, an imbalance in our economy and our democracy.

47:43I mean, Bernie said it over and over. It's the billionaire class are trying to buy our democracy and they're willing to trade democracy for an extra zero in their offshore bank account. You add that to the violence you are seeing in Minnesota, in Chicago, in California, and in this district. Just today, I heard about shots being fired in Roxbury, New Jersey, just outside the district. We had on a Sunday morning, ICE agents go to an early Sunday morning, go into a laundromat and arrest a teenager. We know that we have this precarious situation happening across the country and people are concerned, rightfully so.

48:32And I feel like it's, I'm curious if you've got this sense from people that it's two sides of the same coin in the sense that they elected Trump, the country elected Trump because they They wanted egg prices down and, you know, grocery prices down. And it was a stand in. Those things were a stand in for things were getting unaffordable. And instead we get this chaos and this violence. And so it's not just that they're against that. It's that this seems to be the only thing that Trump cares about. Like, is that why? Like, I mean, did it resonate on both levels for people? Yes, absolutely. I mean, you know, I I saw it.

49:12turning point after the murder of Mrs. Good in Minnesota. I saw folks who were very concerned about what was happening and how they could protect community. I saw folks who, you know, most certainly when Mr. Preddy was murdered, also just find themselves in complete and utter shock. We had been having town halls in which we incorporated ICE trainings to make sure that people understood their rights so that people understood the difference between a judicial warrant and a administrative warrant so that they understood how they would protect themselves from undue and unfair illegal search and seizures.

50:00and, you know, speaking to the chaos, people are very, very concerned about what they are seeing out of this administration. Most people, what they desire is just the ability to live their lives, raise their kids, have an opportunity and call it a day, you know, watch the Super Bowl, to hang out with your friends. And what we are finding is this increasing not only divisiveness, which, you know, at times we have seen in our country for sure. I mean, this is a nation that has had its ups and downs. But what we are seeing in this moment, I think, is just shocking and jarring our communities into action.

50:39I also think that, you know, I, as an organizer, as a trainer, I've spent many years trying to teach my community and leaders about how we are, in fact, in an Overton window tug of war with with MAGA and with Donald Trump for the last like hard to believe for 10 years. And in effect, for folks who are listening that are unaware, the Overton window is quite simply what is the what is the realm of the acceptable that we will accept from our government? Donald Trump has been trying to yank that all the way into fascism, in my opinion, and essentially shifted where the center, quote unquote, is at.

51:25Well, it is our responsibility to yank it back. And that means that we need to speak bold ideas. We need to elect bold progressives where we can so that we can recalibrate our nation back into greater normalcy and hopefully rebuild beyond what we had. But, I mean, we're going to be doing this for generations, I think. And any conversation of this race, of course, isn't complete without the complete and utter faceplant that that AIPAC took in this race. So for people who didn't follow it. Couldn't that happen to a better crew? So they took a gigantic pile of money. Yes, and lit it on fire. They didn't just light it on fire.

52:08So they threw it at Tom Malinowski, who was fairly pro-Israel, former member of Congress, former State Department official, who had the temerity to say that perhaps, you know, if Israel commits some particular grave human rights abuses, then we should consider potentially, not promising, just maybe think about, you know, dialing back a little bit on some weapons systems. Which is the correct thing to do if we are a sovereign nation. It's also the law. If we are a sovereign nation, do we give exactly we should we give a blank check to just anybody? No. But what they did was go after. Exactly. Go ahead.

52:50No, you go ahead. Well, I mean, you witnessed it up close, but for that, they dropped what, two plus million dollars. ironically accusing him of being too close to trump and for supporting funding for ice which is amazing that aipac which is mostly republican funded is using republican money to accuse somebody of supporting ice and trump and it it it drove down it drove up his negatives it drove it it hurt molinowski in the final stretch you drop two million dollars on anybody Yes, for sure. For sure. I will say, you know, I was on the doors and and on social and in community. I think Malinowski supporters were very vocal in pushing against APAC and trying to tell voters what was happening.

53:41I joined in. I most certainly stepped up and denounced what APAC was doing to Tom. But to be honest, when I first jumped in, I had stated that I would reject APAC funding, that in fact every candidate should because this is what they do. Leopards eat your face. The interesting thing here is that, you know, really the lesson that AIPAC taught New Jersey 11, New Jersey and voters across the country is that they are willing to destroy friend or foe unless you commit to and pledge blind obedience. And that should, to me, that actually forget whether or not they helped elect me. It's the fact that they told on themselves so clearly that this is just, I hope it is a turning point.

54:42There are other special elections happening in New Jersey. Bonnie Watson Coleman announced that she wasn't going to run again. So there's a there is a contest for her seat. Adam Hamillay, right? Yes. And there is there is this, you know, again, I think, you know, candidates in that race are are speaking out against AIPAC. Now you have even moderates and Republicans speaking out against AIPAC and their practices. And to me, that is the biggest lesson. And it's this idea that unless you pledge blind obedience, you know, this entity will come after you. And the only way in which we free ourselves of it is to disempower them by not taking their money and by calling them out for what they've done.

55:36and yeah in the in bonnie watson coleman's district uh there's a guy named dr adam hamillay who you know i'm sure um who was a doctor who's gone repeatedly to to gaza to do missions there um i remember he when when he first launched somebody asked him what are you going to refuse apac money it's like well uh israel was like blocking him from leaving gaza and like blocking water from getting into the hospital where he was working. I think pretty safely. Safe to say. I guess where he's going to come down on this question. But so what have you heard from other Democrats? So once you win the, now you've been endorsed by Mikey Sherrill, by the governor, well, the governor, she's now governor, but by a host of establishment Democrats.

56:24So you're now, because you're now the party nominee. Cory Booker, the congressional delegation, as well as my opponent. You know, this is primary. Cory Booker is an interesting one. So what did they tell you about what they thought of AIPAC's intervention in the race? Honestly, what we mostly spoke about was how we needed this was a moment for us to turn and build unity. that primaries are about, you know, sifting out ideas and seeing what resonates with voters. And then the general, we have to come together. Both Cory Booker, Senator Booker and Senator Andy Kim have both committed to me their support, not only through this primary, but all the way through to November, or better yet, this general, this special general and all the way through to November.

57:17I have, you know, I'm receiving the support of institutional players and the party itself. But here's the thing, right? Like the truth is that organizers, activists across the country, in order for us to be effective, we actually have to know who the power brokers are. It's not about for organizers and really for the left, the way in which we build governing power is not just to call the question and throw rocks from the outside, but it's for us to understand that while proximity to power is not power, so we don't kiss up to the institution, but we do come, you know, we do play ball. We do have to use our leverage and our power to be able to demand a seat at the table so that we can negotiate together.

58:09And so I'm not surprised that there is unity lining up behind me because that's what we have to do in order to beat MAGA and Trumpism. But also I've known these players for the last 25 years. There have been times in which we have disagreed. There have been times in which I have pushed them hard. But then when we get into alignment, we get into alignment. And that's what I think we need to do in this moment. without capitulating, without giving up on our morals and values. At this moment, what we are focused on, what I am focused on doing is making sure to consolidate and work collaboratively across the party so that I can emerge victorious in this special general on April 16th.

59:01But, you know, I will remind folks who are listening, then I have to run in another primary in June, and then again, a general in November. And so, you know, I do think that Trump, MAGA, Trumpism is probably going to make my job a little easier in that respect, because their overreach is going to continue. I think the Democratic Party is shaken up across the country and most certainly in New Jersey to be more vocal and aggressive in resisting and pushing back against MAGA and their overreach and their extremism. My focus right now is getting through this April general on April 16th, and then I'll be running again this June in the regular primary and then again in November for the regular general.

59:55And so that means, you know, ensuring that I am uplifting the concerns of regular voters, that I'm consolidating not only Democrats, but frankly, independents. And I think, you know, MAGA, like I said, MAGA Trumpism is making my job a little easier, sadly, with their overreach and violent authoritarianism. By the way, has your delegation member, Josh Gottheimer, has he called yet? He actually did send me a note congratulating me. Amazing. I thought that was a pleasant surprise. Excellent. Well, Annalilia Mejia, the Democratic nominee for New Jersey's 11th District, thanks so much for joining us and congratulations on the upset victory.

1:00:39Thank you. Hopefully I'll join you again soon. I'll be smooth. And in studio. Can't wait to see you guys in Washington. Oh, yes. Yes. That's going to be awesome. Thank you, Ben. Appreciate you. You got it. All right. So that's Lilia Mejia on her way to becoming a member of Congress. And I would expect reelected again in November. We'll see. Amazing that one of the wealthiest districts in the country is going to send a kind of Berniecrat to Congress. And I think it's an extraordinarily significant development for the reshaping of the Democratic Party. Right. For a long time, it's been Ro Khanna, who's a representative, kind of Bernie Democrat, who represents one of the wealthiest districts in the country.

1:01:29And if anything, the populists have been, you know, we've talked about this research from CGCN, the lobbying firm that shows populists are from the poorer districts, Freedom Caucus, Squad, they're representing the poorer districts. So it is a very interesting development on the left. Yeah, not so much anymore. I'm right. Well, we will see you on Friday. Crystal and Sagar will be back here tomorrow. Yeah, and make sure to subscribe if you haven't yet. It helps us so much if you just subscribe for free to the channel. Like, comment, all of that. But if you want a premium subscription, that's awesome too.

1:02:01BreakingPoints.com. See you later.

1:02:19What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:02:59I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead-up to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bowen. Hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt. Hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie. Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway, and we are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys, Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:03:341969. Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.