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- [00:01]
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Michael Popak
Time for POPOC Live Christmas and Hanukkah Eve edition. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal af. I took a week off, but I'm back, I'm tan, I'm ready, I'm rested. And you're on POPOC Live. Four big topics today we're going to talk about one of them. Here's my, here's my statement, here's my proclamation. We can debate it. Joe Biden, greatest lame duck president of all time. And I mean that Mount Rushmore of lame duck presidents. What he's accomplishing or what he's accomplished in the last three to four weeks alone will make your head spin. Some presidencies weren't this successful, all in an effort to trump proof the Biden legacy and protect democracy and the American serve the American people. I'm gonna talk about that. Number two, you've heard about the Matt Gaetz Report, but not the way I'm gonna present it. We're going to see what was actually in the report, the major findings and even maga. MAGA have had to admit that it's more likely than not that Matt Gaetz committed sex crimes, obstructed justice and obstructed Congress, committed bribery and used illicit drugs. And that's just the beginning. Let's go to Musk and China. Musk. We. Oh, we Musk. Sorry, I'm punchy today. Leading into the holiday, Elon Musk runs a fake imaginary organization. There's no other way to put it. It's called the Department of Government Efficiency. Except it's not a department. It's not in the government and hasn't really been created yet. But in any event, he's got China interests and he's letting his China interest show. And as a result, China effectively told America how it should fund its government. I'll cover that all when we get to it. And then fourth one, cuz I just like the combination of Greenland and Panama. Greenland and Panama. No, Popak's not going into the travel business, although I'd like to. I'm gonna talk about Donald Trump talking about the United States buying Greenland, a protectorate of Denmark, against the will of the people who live in Greenland and to take control again of the Panama Canal, something that I. I believe Jimmy Carter gave back to Panama. And the response, it dovetails nicely with the show I'm working on cooking that should be ready right after the New year with Anthony Davis here on the Midas Dutch network work entitled Global af, where we talk about the international response to Donald Trump's next administration. I'm glad you're here. There's a few ways to help us. I mean, have I told you that independent journalism, independent commentary and analysis without outside investors is under attack? I mean, it is. We have no outside investors. You are our investors. By investing your time and your energy. That's all we got. Right. It's just sweat equity at this point, but that keeps the lights on. And in return, we give you our unbiased, unvarnished, unplugged, unfiltered, unhinged, sometimes commentary and analysis like no other. Because we are not owned by outside corporate media entities that are willing to sacrifice the First Amendment and freedom of the press on the altar of their corporate greed. There's no other way to put it. We don't have the owner telling the publisher what the editorial position should be on a certain matter. Nobody tells us. I know nobody wants to believe this, and it makes for great reading or on other channels or something, but nobody is telling me what to say and what not to say. And if I say it, it's because of the. The gravitas of life. I earned every piece of gray in my hair. I'm going to talk about it right here. Okay, enough about the channel, enough about me. Let's get into it. Biden, the greatest lame duck president of all time. Discuss. Okay, what am I talking about? What? Just look at the things that Joe Biden has done in the last four weeks. I'm breathless. They're on fumes. For a guy that took unjustified attacks for him being sleepy Joe, Incompetent Joe, Mentally incapacitated, physically incapacitated, napping Joe. Look what his administration is accomplishing with him at the helm. Let's go over it. Let's start with things that are. I'll do it in the order of things in the news. The use of the pardon and clemency power. Look at this is a great way to Stick it to Donald Trump. First of all, week or so ago, this the most clemencies commutation of sentences ever in the history of America. 1400 all in one fell swoop. Mainly nonviolent crime to get these people out of prison. Their conviction stays on their record, but they get to reenter society because Joe Biden showed mercy in the exercise of his clemency powers. Two weeks ago we had 37, 37 or so pardons, meaning the conviction comes off the books, as does the sentence, including for his son Hunter Biden. A long national nightma of the Hunter Biden laptop affair and junk pics is over. Thank you. Along with others who were also pardoned. But that's. He's not done. I called for a couple of weeks ago on a hot take on Legal AF, the YouTube channel, for Joe Biden to use his powers of mercy and his pardon powers, which can't be attacked, can't be checked, can't be balanced to take people off of death row, not let them out of jail. I don't want that to be any misunderstanding. I'm not looking to have them reenter society. But I do want to take away the death killing machine of the US government and from a dignity and morality standpoint and have them serve life imprisonment without possibility of parole. We can debate another time the efficacy the morality of the death penalty being exercised by a democracy. We can do that another time, but for right now, 37 out of 30. Sorry, 37 out of 40 people at Terry Ho, Indiana. Thank you for the pronunciation guide. Those are my legal AF channel. Terry Ho, Indiana is the home of the federal penitentiary where almost all of these death penalty people sit. Convicts sit. 37 of them are not going anywhere, but they're also not going to be dying because they've been given a commutation of their sentence. Conversion of their sentence, clemency through the mercy of Joe Biden stay in jail. Only there's three that aren't going anywhere and are still in line for the death penalty. So as soon as Donald Trump comes in, who has a lust for the death penalty, these three will be put to death pretty quickly. One is. And when I tell you who the three are, you'll understand that this is also a reflection of who we are as a people. Joe Biden is the dignity of Joe Biden and the. What's the word I'm looking for? The. I'll leave it at dignity till I can think of another word from the thesaurus. The three are Dylann Roof, who killed nine black parishioners in the Mother Emanuel Church v. The person, the killer, the mass murderer of more Jews on domestic soil than ever in our history at what we call the Tree of Life Synagogue. It was a combination of Synagogues in Pittsburgh. 11 Jews worshiping during the high holy days lost their life. That guy's not going anywhere. And the surviving brother of the two brothers who devised and implemented the Boston Marathon bombing, he's not going anywhere. And as I said at the top of the hot take this particular segment, Donald Trump has a lust for execution. He just announced, not on the campaign trail, like going into office, that he's going to ask his Department of Justice, likely headed by Pam Bondi, his FBI director, who could be headed by Kash Patel, to try to find more ways to to impose the federal death penalty, not less for violent crime. Now, we'll have to see what the United States Supreme Court says about that. They've already ruled that the right wing of the Supreme Court has already ruled on a number of occasions that the death penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th amendment and therefore can be used in America. But it's always been tied to very heinous, treacherous, depraved acts that can't be squared with our morals and our values. And they've said that's okay if it's symmetrical, if it's proportional to the crime. Donald Trump wants to expand it to other, quote, unquote, violent crime. I'm not sure, as depraved as a certain type of violent crime may be, I'm not sure that's going to be enough for this United States Supreme Court to say that that's fair, proportional to the crime, for it to be not cruel and unusual punishment. That will be something we will follow on the United States Supreme Court as Donald Trump tries to expand it. As soon as he got back into office in 2016, he had 16 federal inmates put to death. Donald Trump, whereas Joe Biden, showing his morals and values of what we voted for, he created in 2021 a federal ban, a moratorium at least on execution of prisoners. And that's been going on until this moment. Now, the three that I just described, Mother Emanuel Church, Tree of Life Synagogue and Boston Marathon bomber, will be joined by at least two more. One, the mass murderer, mass shooter in Buffalo in two or three years ago who took out minority and black people at a supermarket in Buffalo. He's that's a Biden administration prosecution under the death penalty and under civil rights violations. And he's going to join these other two so there'll be at least these are the three, there'll be four. And then for another day, we'll talk about whether Luigi Mangione were somehow to get the death penalty. He would join and that will be prosecuted by the incoming started by the Biden U.S. attorney in the because the crime was committed during the Biden administration or the attack, the purported crime. But the Luigi Magione thing, that's going to continue beyond, beyond the inauguration. It'll be taken over by Jay Clayton, who I know from the securities and Exchange Commission used to be in that office. He will now head that office as the head prosecutor. I am sure he will continue and he will seek the death penalty. We'll continue to follow it. Here on Legal AF of the Midas Touch Network. We have a unique perspective, not because I talked to her about the case, but because my podcast partner on Wednesday, a dear friend of mine is Karen Freeman Agniflo here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal Afghanistan. And she is representing with her husband, along with her husband, Mark Ignifolo, Luigi Mancione. So we've got. I'm still staying here right now, though. Remember Joe Biden, the Mount Rushmore of lame duck presidents. He also let's move to judges. He did two things when it relates to judges in the last week or two. He got confirmed. One more judge, I think it was 245. 245 judges. 244. I'm in the ballpark. Federal judges at every level, state, sorry, appellate and trial level, were appointed and now confirmed under Joe Biden. And it's not just the sheer quantity, it's the quality of the type of judges that now reshape the face literally of the judiciary. I think there's 60 black judges now. Federal judges, lifetime appointments, Article 3 judges against 12 for Donald Trump. 60% of Joe Biden's confirmed judges are women. 24% were women for Donald Trump. The prototypical confirmed judge for Donald Trump, a white male in his 50s, that for Joe Biden, a Hispanic, Asian or black, let's say black female in her 50s, shows you the difference and their backgrounds. The prototypical judge for Donald Trump came from corporate America, working for a company in house counsel or for a MAGA right wing organization or worked for what they call a white shoe law firm, came from Harvard or Yale. Joe Biden, all accomplished people, all people with great credentials, but many of them came from civil rights litigation, being public defenders, doing God's work, depending on people who can't afford, who are Indigent and can't afford for themselves. So these people are coming from the right places, they've lived a life, and that will help them dispense justice in our system of justice. Now you might say, well, Joe Biden's so pro federal judiciary, why did he veto just a day or so ago the Judges act that would have added 65 new judges to alleviate docket congestion all around the country. Federal courts are overwhelmed mainly because they have two roles. We don't have a criminal federal court in this country and a civil federal court. Federal judges sit in their jurisdiction and cover both federal and civil. And federal always take priority, generally take priority to civil cases because there's this right of speedy trial under our Constitution to process rights that puts civil cases way back. I've been involved in civil cases in federal court where it took us 4, 5, 6, 8 to 10 years to get to trial. Goes faster for criminal cases. Six months, eight months, one year, maybe two years. And so there's backlog in populous states like California, New York and Illinois and Florida. They need judges. So while Joe Biden was still in office, there was a bipartisan push to add 65 new judges. And the compromise, the horse trade in Congress was that it would be the next three judges, starting with Joe Biden. Everybody would get like 22 judges or whatever the math is. But even though the Senate passed it, you know, the deliberative body, the mature body passed it. They sent it off in August before the election. They sent it off to the House and MAGA House said, let's wait to see if it's Trump. They wouldn't vote on it while Biden was still in office giving him 25. They didn't want to give him 25. You know, Trump's up their ass not to do it, and so they don't do it. And Joe Biden said, you know, what was once bipartisan has now been made ruinously partisan. These are my words have now been made very, very partisan. And I'm not gonna vote for it now. Cuz you waited until after Donald Trump got in to give him an instant, like all of the 65 additional federal clerks judgeships, and I'm not doing that. So he vetoed it. He just vetoed it. He warned them that he was gonna vetoed it, veto it, and he vetoed it. Now what does that mean? How secure is it? Bopac? Oh, it's pretty airtight secure. Cuz in order to override that veto and do this again, whether Trump's in or not or right now there has to be a 2/3 vote of the House and the Senate in order to override a presidential veto. Two thirds vote, House and Senate. Is that happening? No, it would be 290 votes in the House. They only have 215 Republicans. And it would have to be 60, 67, I think, in the Senate. I'll do my math later. Not happening. Dead. No more additional judges for Donald Trump. So that means that if they're gonna try to give more judges to Donald Trump, they're gonna have to waste valuable time. I mean, what they're trying to do here is not make it easy on Donald Trump and make him waste time and waste scarce resources. Scarce time, resources, scarce. Administrative focus, scarce legislative focus on things. Make him do everything everywhere, all at the same time. That will tie him up. It'll sort of throw sand in the gears making them. If you're going to get more judges, you're going to have to do it the old fashioned way, try it all over again. And legislation and waste time and everything that's being considered is one less thing that can be considered that particular day in the House and the Senate. Great move by lame duck Joe Biden. We talked about death penalty, we talked about judges. How about debt relief, loan forgiveness? Sorry. For another 55,000 people to the tune of $4 billion. Mainly frontline workers who now have had their student loans and debt relief. Now there's other reporting about other debt relief that the programs are being sundowned by Joe Biden. That's mainly because they can't get them up and running. Judges have shot them down. It's a waste of time to give people debt relief when it's gonna be shot down. So that's sort of off the table. And similarly, legislation that Joe Biden has not been able to get passed and won't have time to get passed, like more protection for the transgender community and other things. He's pulling them back and pulling them out of committee on Capitol Hill because He doesn't want Maga and the 119th to take over that legislation and have a fast track to make ridiculous, terrible, un American changes to it. So he's killing, he's killing these legislation and pulling it back and he's giving orders to do that. Remember, Joe Biden spent the bulk of his career over 40 years on Capitol Hill. He knows how to run legislation better than anybody, including Donald Trump, who's not yet into power. So we have that. And then lastly, we've got hundreds of billions of dollars that in the last three weeks Alone up. And I mean beyond this hot. Take that. Joe Biden and his team, his administration and cabinet members are pushing out the door and getting agreements signed to fund money that Congress has already funded for some of Joe Biden's signature policy initiatives. So 10 more billion is being approved for infrastructure and being sent. Not just approved, sent out the door. 303,39 billion for semiconductor and chip manufacturing. That agreements are being rushed to be signed right now to get that $40 billion out the door along with the Science act, another $369 billion in clean energy subsidies are being signed as I speak to get that money out the door and $7 billion over to Ukraine. So when you add all that together, you're looking at another $500 billion. It's a going out of business sale. And it's obvious Joe Biden is rightly emptying the tank of everything he can possibly do. And he's having his cabinet members look at their rosters and making sure that everybody gets raises and everybody gets bonuses and everybody gets elevated in title. So when inevitably they try to hollow out these departments, it makes it infinitesimally. No, that's not the right word. It makes it infinitely harder. There's the word. So I'm going to. Sorry, it's that. It's that holiday season. We're going to talk more in the next segment about Matt Gaetz. What did they determine with this long awaited House Ethics Committee report? Did MAGA Republicans try to help him with any kind of counter report? Didn't he file a lawsuit pop to try to stop the publication of the report? How do you know all about it? I'm gonna cover that. And then I wanna talk about Elon Musk taking orders from China, giving orders to Donald Trump and effectively by transitive property China telling us how and when to fund our government to avoid a shutdown. Yes, I will put that all together. And then finally, Greenland and Panama, will they be acquired militarily or by an offer to purchase by that real estate mogul wannabe Donald Trump? I don't think so. But since he's brought it up, I thought I would address it here on POPOC Live. You're already here. Take a moment. Hit the free subscribe button for the Midas Touch network. Go over to Legal AF, the new YouTube channel. We're already 370,000 strong. Also independent, in collaboration with Midas Touch. Hit the free subscribe button. And now, fortunately, we have sponsors here on POPOC Live, which keeps Midas Touch and Legal a f rolling into the New Year. And then lastly I got a great announcement. I'm ready to make it. I think the great announcement is I've been cooking. I've been cooking. I'm still cooking for the holidays with Anthony Davis, he of 5 Minute News and the Weeknd show and Uncovered and all sorts of other Midas things. And he and I go way back and we've decided it's time to do the American and the Brit or the working title I think is Global af and we're going to launch that as a podcast in the new year. But you're on POPOC Live now and when we come back from our sponsors, we'll cover all those other segments and more on this special, special coinciding holiday edition. It's the Holiday Equinox here on the Midas Touch Network. Here's a word from our sponsors. 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Fume continuously invests in third party studies to ensure the safety of their products and is backed by Doctors in the U.S. personally, my favorite flavor is the Crisp Mint. I love the taste and I'm truly a huge fan of Fume. So many listeners of Legal AF have told me they've quit their bad habits with Fume and I know it can do the same for you. Fume has served over 300,000 customers and you can be the next success story. For a limited time, use my Code Legal AFT to get a free gift with your journey pack. Head to trifm.com that's T R Y F U M dot com and use code legal AF or scan the QR code on screen to get a free gift with your order today. All right, welcome back. Got a lot to cover. Let's do it all now. Let's talk about Matt Gates. All right, let me get the basics on the table. So we all know what was decided and what was not decided by this long awaited House Ethics Committee report. Now how did that come about? It's the only, I think it's the only bipartisan, truly bipartisan split five and five, Republican and Democrat, chaired by a Republican because they're in control of the House. But it's the only true bipartisan committee that there is. And I think at the very end when there were, they took so much grief about releasing, not releasing the report. I think they finally decided and they got at least one Republican, I don't know who it is yet. One Republican had to come over to break the deadlock of five. Five. We know the chairperson, Michael Guest from Mississippi was against it. So Some Republican, I'm sure he'll be in the cross. He or she'll be in the crosshairs of Donald Trump. He'll be calling for a primary challenge any moment now. But somebody moved the needle and opened it up. Now, I think they had to, because can you imagine the precedent of they do a 20 month investigation of Matt Gaetz, whether he committed sex crimes, used illicit drugs and bribery, and they decided not to release it because he dropped out. He only dropped out to avoid the release. And if they don't release it, what does it say about the committee and its bipartisanship and ethics? Isn't it, in other words, isn't it unethical for the Ethics Committee not to release their report? I'm sure that was bouncing around in the transom of their mind and the irony of it was not lost on anybody. So they got the job done. They got the practical effect. They effectively got Matt Gaetz to resign from running or be fired for the Attorney General position. And they sort of forced them out by resignation. They flashed it around like, we've got a report. And Matt Gaetz knows what's in a report because Matt Gaetz did the bad things. And I'm sure Michael Guest, the Republican chairperson, let Matt Gaetz know that report's terrible for you. And so they accomplished all that. Now, the last gasp, really, the last day when they were meeting for the holidays, they released the report. Here's what it found. At least 20 times Matt Gaetz used Venmo and PayPal to have sex, including with underaged girls, including what would be referred to in Florida as statutory rape since the girl was 17, while he was 35, that he used illicit drugs, that he used his power, his public power, improperly. In other words, he, it was an abuse of public trust, trying to use his power to benefit one of these girls, one of these women, in order to expedite her passport. Apparently big tough guy, big guy with power, trying to get the passport expedited. I can do that for 50 bucks. He also obstructed the proceedings, the congressional investigation, obstruction of Congress, obstruction of justice, because he refused to cooperate with them. He said there was evidence, counter evidence that would prove his innocence, which he never provided and delayed them on that. The only thing they didn't clear him of, the only, I'm sorry, the only thing they were able to sort of clear him on is they didn't find substantial evidence to prove that he trafficked girls across state lines or country lines for sex. In other words, sex trafficking. That's It, I mean, that's not covering himself in any glory. Off of that, off of that, there could still be, in a perfect world that we don't live in, there could still be a prosecution of Matt Gaetz for obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, and also statutory rape. But the statutory rape and those other things are generally state law violations. Guys from Florida, that's a Ron DeSantis Magaland, that's not going to lead to a prosecution, I don't think. And then on the federal side, Pam Bondi's not gonna do it. And Donald Trump's gonna give the guy, especially after the release of the report, he's gonna give him a pardon. So the federal stuff's dead doa. So there could be time. Now, some of it doesn't have a statute of limitations. So that really is the reason that Donald Trump has to give this guy a pardon in Gates's mind, because there's no statute of limitation. So if Donald Trump and the. Sorry, if Maga loses in the, in the next election for the presidency and a Democrat comes in, Matt Gaetz is exposed again. So look for a pardon based on the revelation of this report. Here's another reason. Matt Gaetz shouldn't be the top lawyer in the land. As the head of the Department of Justice, as Attorney General, he doesn't know how to prepare and file a lawsuit because there was a lot of publicity that he filed a lawsuit to try to stop the publication of the report that I already have a copy of. It's 41 pages. But he didn't ask for an injunction, he didn't ask the judge to stop the release, and he filed it after the publication. I'm not quite sure where this was going, but there's a rumor that Matt Gates wants to run for the Senate seat in Florida, abdicated or abandoned by Marco Rupio. He could then if he tries to get back in, then the Senate would have to take up whether he's fit and whether he should be impeached and removed based on the findings of the, of that report in the House. But then you got the House versus the Senate. The Senate will be controlled. The Republicans, they'll probably seat the guy. They'll probably seat up. We could sue over it, could try to challenge it. We'll continue to follow Matt Gaetz. It's important, though, that this report came out branding him for what he is, a statutory rapist, somebody who had sex with girls, somebody who paid to have sex with girls, who abused his position of power, used illicit drugs and obstructed. Congress. If I was running against Matt Gaetz, I might want to bring some of those things up to the people of the state of Florida. I think he was popular in his little corner that he lived in. I'm not sure he's popular for statewide office, but that's my own opinion, having lived down in Florida for a number of years. Let me move on under POPAC live rubric. Uh, now that we talked about Matt Gates, let's talk about Elon Musk. Elon Musk, what am I talking about? All right. Elon Musk was given because he basically bought a president by paying $250 million of his own money to help Donald Trump get elected. And in return, he got to head a fake organization that's got a fake name, that's not in the government nor department, never will be, and hasn't even been properly formed yet. I mean, it could be an outside blue ribbon panel. I mean, that's sort of the best you can do. Should be awarding, you know, ribbons at a, at A, at a 4F fair for the best pig or apple pie. But you know, apparently it's just going to be somebody that's going to make mean social media posts about departments and entities that got on the wrong side of him in his business world that he wants to get rid of. Now why is we. Why am I talking about China and the restart of the government or the funding bill to stop the shutdown? Right on, right on cue, on Christmas that just happened, there was a huge bipartisan bill that contained in it. Bipartisan, that contained in it many, many restrictions on US Investment in Chinese technology, Chinese AI, its ability to create cryptocurrency, for instance, military grade weapons systems run by AI and computers. Right. By quantum math. And there's different ways and like, why help our enemy, let them get their own money. So this bill would have stopped the ability to make foreign investment by US entities in China in these key technologically advanced areas that undermine our national security. Right. We already have the Office of Foreign Asset Control, ofac. Ofac, which keeps an eye on who owns what foreign entities that are American. So we know how there could be attempts at foreign power corruption in America. This is about blocking investment. The flow of capital from America into China. Sounds like a good thing. Now who would be against that that we can think of on this POPOC live? How about Elon Musk, who's the only US Car manufacturer that has a plant in China? And not just one plant, he's got a plant for Tesla. He's Got a plant for batteries, he's got a plant for AI, he's got a plant for self driving cars. And he only operates all of those things at the will and the pleasure and the whim of the Chinese government. There's no capitalism in China that isn't owned or controlled by the Chinese government. The Chinese Communist Party. You want to do business in China, you're doing business with the Chinese Communist Party and its president. The guy that Donald Trump's decided should go to his inauguration. Why not? Why not? And so Elon Musk has billions of dollars invested with the Chinese and his licenses and his factories could disappear tomorrow with a communist takeover of all of his things. He's so beholden to the Chinese and so in their back pocket that when China objected to Elon Musk allowing the Taiwanese, who all they want to do in Taiwan is breathe free and that we support as part of our national policy, our foreign policy. When China said don't give them the Starlink satellites, Don Elon Musk turned them off. They went dark for Taiwan. Right. He's conducting his own foreign policy. No, China is conducting our foreign policy through Elon Musk. And so China obviously told Elon Musk and Elon Musk figured it out for himself that all of that stuff in that bipartisan bill to avoid the government shutdown that addressed blocking investment in China in these key areas that needed to be stripped away, that needed to be removed, and all the other stuff that Elon Musk said about, it's wasteful. There's trillions of dollars, there's bridges to nowhere, there's. There's maple, maple syrup studies that need to be removed. This is an example of pork barrel at the highest levels in Washington. That's not. That was all bull. Bullshit. Sorry, Merry Christmas. It was all bull. Nothing to do with that. That was all, that was all smokescreen. What he wanted out was the Chinese, the limits on Chinese investment because he didn't want to piss off the Chinese and he didn't want to lose his licenses and lose his factories in China worth billions of dollars. So he told Donald Trump under any circumstance, don't let that bill, that bipartisan bill pass because of it undermining already Marco Rubio, who's the incoming Secretary of State for Donald Trump, that advanced one of the bills to limit Chinese investment, sorry, American investment in Chinese technological and military grade computing, AI chip manufacturing and the like. Donald Trump has his own businesses in China. Trump World Trump Organization, his cryptocurrency and the rest, all millions and billions. Of dollars invested in China. He's not pissing off China, despite the fact that it undermines our national security. That was a good part of the bill. That was the part of the bill that I said. That was the part of the bill I did a hot take on and I called for the Democrats to lay down the law. Unfortunately, the Republicans gathered enough votes and then they got this thing passed. And the government is open until March. Now it'll be up to who. Nobody is gonna raise the issues. This was the last probably chance we had until the midterms to get investment in China, limited in these key strategic and war military areas. Until the midterms. The last chance, maga Congress isn't gonna take it up. Maga Senate's not gonna take it up. It's done. That was it. That's the reason that it happened. So as we get ready, less than 30 days to the inauguration, I want to talk about some other things that Donald Trump has said out loud in order to position himself for his foreign policy. Mainly, he wants us, the American taxpayer, to buy Greenland and he wants to take back the Panama Canal. I'll cover all of those international affairs at the intersection of law, politics and insanity when I come back on POPOC Live. In the meantime, we've got another word from our sponsors. How closely do you track your bank statements and credit card transactions? 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- [40:03]
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- [41:55]
Michael Popak
All right, welcome Back to the the Christmas Hanukkah equinox intersection law, politics and all holidays of Popoc live on the Midas Touch Network. And let me follow. Let me catch you up now in the last segment, Greenland and Panama are in the news for all the wrong reasons. But for related reasons all through Donald Trump, first of all, so let's take Greenland. Donald Trump, it was whispered in his ear in his first term by Ronald Lauder from the Louder family that owns Estee Lauder. Their mother was Estee Lauder. He's a multi, multi billionaire. The family still runs and controls Estee Lauder. He was an ambassador, he's an art collector. If you're ever in New York, you want to go to the new gallery off of 5th Avenue and 86th Street. It's amazing. It's owned by the Louder family. It's a tax write off. You should go see it. All right, enough plugging. New York tourism. In addition to that, we have Lauder whispering to Donald Trump back in 2016, 2017 that Greenland would be strategically useful because it has a lot, a lot, much like Canada, a lot of minerals and natural resources that are part of our strategic reserve for our national security. You know, Canada has like 37 different of those types of elements, minerals and resources that we use as part of our national defense and weaponry and defense systems and the like. And Greenland's the same. And with the melting ice caps, you got a lot of more opportunity up in Greenland than you did before for maritime and exploration, real estate development and the things. Now what is the status of Greenland? Because who thinks about Greenland? I'm not against Greenland and I'm sure, I'm hoping we're number one or number two in Greenland for any kind of law and law and news, law and politics analysis. It may be hit me up in the DMs and in the chat. If you're from Greenland and you're a legal AF watcher, that'd be great. Greenland, which is really cold. For those that don't remember your history, the rumor is the old wives tale is that they named Iceland Iceland because it was green and they wanted to keep foreign invaders away from it. Like, ooh, Iceland sounds cold. We don't want to go there. And they named Greenland Greenland because it was icy and they wanted the foreign invaders to go there. So Greenland, let's just put it this way. You think upper Canada is cold? This is upper Canada and but Donald Trump, back to what is its place on the globe? It is, I believe, a protectorate of Denmark. It could have declared its own independence in 2009, but didn't. So it still gets, has a lot of economic and financial and military connectivity back to Denmark and the Danes, and they're a protectorate now. Could some other country become its protectorate? I mean, in order to own it, it would have to buy it like a territory. You'd have to make a deal, I think, with Denmark and with the people of Greenland, put it to a referendum. You have to make a pitch. This is what Donald Trump's going to be focused on over the next four years, trying to buy Greenland like we bought Alaska or Louisiana. I don't think it's happening. First of all, I don't think the people of Greenland want to give up their sovereignty or their protectorate status with Denmark and just go to the United States under Donald Trump. One of the people in the, they have a, they have a legislative body. One of the leaders of the legislative body in Greenland said something along the line of, I don't know their accent, so I'll just make up one. It's a pretty strange way to approach an ally. I don't know why all my accents sound like muddled, muddled English. I just watch too many shows on BBC, obviously. So that's not happening. I don't care. Maybe a strategic alliance with Greenland. Maybe, maybe. But you're not buying Greenland and we're certainly not invading Greenland. So let me just announce to the people in Greenland, we're not evading you. We're, you know, we're, we're friendly. Like, feel like we're like, you know, a UFO that just landed in Greenland. We're friendly. Don't worry. Take us to your leader. Panama. Why is he pissing off Panama? Donald Trump likes rocking every boat all at the same time. I mean, Germany's about to fall because of Donald Trump, apparently. Canada is in turmoil and that government's about to fall. Italy's relatively stable, but Germany's not, France's and Canada's not. Wow. Now you see why Anthony Davis and I want to sit around for an hour and talk about global impact of Donald Trump and vice versa on, wait for it, Global af. Or do you like the American and the Brit? Let me between. Between an American and a Brit. Something like that. Give us some names in the chat here for what we should call the show that we're considering. Anthony Davis and me, we're gonna launch it in January. We should have a naming contest. I might ask Midas to help me with the naming contest. Do it here, start it here, Put it in the chat put it right there, Leave it in comments. So we have Panama and President Muti sorry of Panama has basically responded already to Donald Trump much the way that President Sheinbaum in Mexico did, which is go pound sand. And here's our middle finger. You are never going to take back the Panama Canal from the Panamanian people. It is sovereign, they fought for it, they helped dig it. And it was given back to Panama many, many, many years ago, I think under the Carter administration. And Donald Trump's like, well, there's tariffs and fees around the Panama Canal. We should just take it back. Not happening. But it just shows you why people like John Bolton, who was a national security advisor for Donald Trump, it was a UN ambassador, very well considered among normal, respectful and America loving Republicans. They still exist. By why John Bolton just said recently, we are more likely now than ever before to enter into a world conflict because of the muddled thinking of and unclear and undisciplined thought process of Donald Trump that he is. So this veering from crisis to crisis, forcing us to lurch from constitutional crisis to constitutional crisis, attacking our allies, holding up our enemies as somebody to be admired. This unclear thought, this muddled executive function that we're watching for Donald Trump is leaving us vulnerable and compromised. And it's emboldening our enemies to take advantage of an erratic incoming president. So John Bolton, and I agree with him, thinks that we are more likely than not to suffer an attack, testing our vulnerabilities because of the chaotic nature. People, I love the Republicans who tell me, you know, what keeps us safe. No, tell me they don't know what Donald Trump's gonna do next. He's so erratic, they don't wanna f with him. This is what I heard during the campaign, this is what I hear now. I call it the legal we. Sorry, the lethal weapon school of thought. It's like, you know, the character that Mel Gibson played, you know, in the very beginning, you know, he's so crazy, you know, nobody knew what he was gonna do. And Murdoch, his partner had to like calm him down. But like the criminals were like, oh my God, is this guy gonna shoot us? Oh, that doesn't work in foreign policy on a global stage. All erratic behavior, undisciplined mind, cloudy thinking, unformed policy, half baked ideas, lack of attention to focus, lack of attention to detail. All that does is invite attacks because our enemies are stronger, more disciplined, more powerful, more patient than Donald Trump is. And so they see it as an opportunity to attack, not the other way around. That's the vulnerability that John Bolton's talking about. So when Donald Trump people are like, he's adorable. He's talking about Greenland and Panama again. No, he's me off because he's making us unstable and insecure. If I were a foreign enemy, I'd be looking at Donald Trump like he doesn't seem too threatening, he doesn't seem too organized and he's not running things with an iron fist. He seems like a guy that can't keep two coherent thoughts straight in his head. Yeah. So that's where we're at. What do we need to do as fair minded people, the moderate and the Democrats progressive people, we need to continue to focus our attention on how to pin back and pin down Donald Trump in the court system with federal judges, including the 245 that Joe Biden just put in. Now that he's denied Donald Trump a gift of another 30 or 40 or 50 on the way in, we have to oppose the attempt to expand the federal judiciary under Donald Trump's regime. We have to run into court on every crazy executive order and there will be hundreds of them in the first month. This is why we formed the Legal AF YouTube channel. Go over to Legal AF MTN for Midas Touch Network. Help us grow that channel to 500,000 in the first quarter of 2025. You know, there's going to be so many stories that we're going to have to cover at the intersection of law and politics with filings filed by attorney generals, by public interest groups by the ACLU and others supported by the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. We will have to form a Legal AF channel number two like ESPN2. Seriously. That's why we did it. That's why Ben Mysalis and me founded Legal af. That's why we brought Karen Freeman Igniflo in to help us with the channel and that's why we formed a new Legal AF channel. All for that reason and help us here. There's many ways to help Popoc Live on Tuesday nights. It's a regular show. It's a thing now at 8pm on the Midas Touch Network. Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8pm we have the Midas Touch Legal AF Wednesdays with Karen Friedman Ignifolo. Yes, she's busy with the Luigi Mangione defense, but she's also a regular podcaster with us and she will join us almost I think most weeks we were going to do a show this week. Saturdays I do the show with our co founder, my co founder and friend Ben, my Salus and Then you can pick it up on podcast platforms of your choice, Google, Spotify and Apple and the like. And then we have hot takes like this that we do. New show I'm doing with Anthony Davis. Working title to be a working title is Global af. You see where that's going. Sitting at the intersection of law, politics, Donald Trump and world affairs. And if you can think of a better title like between the Brit and the American. I don't know, Between Two Ferns. I don't know something. Leave it in the chat, leave it in the comments. DM me separately. I'll be looking and so until my next hot take, my next POPOC Live next all things Legal af. I'm wishing everyone, everyone on the Midas Touch Network and Midas Touch Midas mighty Legal A effers and those fair minded people that find independent journalism, independent commentary and analysis on Midas Touch and Legal AF to be rewarding to be comforting to give them the information they need in order to organize their life and keep their executive function properly functioning. I wish you, your families and your loved ones and those you care about and the values you care about, a happy and healthy and prosperous holidays and New Year. So until my next contribution, Michael Popak signing off in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories the intersection of law and Politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal A FMTN. That's at Legal A FMTN.
- [53:56]
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