Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Popok GIVES URGENT Legal Update Ahead of Holidays

Episode Date: December 25, 2024

Legal AF's Michael Popok given an urgent briefing to update on today's breaking developments: 1) President Biden is our best Lame Duck President, using his pardon and clemency power, federal judge confirmations, and hundreds of billions in final spending, to Trump-proof democracy; 2) the Gaetz ethics sex scandal report is out, and should deprive Gaetz of another opportunity to run for office again, as he holds out for a Trump pardon; 3). China, not Trump, decided whether the government funding bill to keep the Government open through March would pass, and its all because of Musk; and 4) Trump's unstable threatens to buy or take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, only make us more susceptible to a likely attack by our enemies. Fum: Head to https://TryFum.com/legalaf or scan the QR code on screen and get a FREE GIFT with the JOURNEY PACK today when you use code LEGALAF One Skin: Get started today at https://OneSkin.co and receive 15% Off using code: LEGALAF Rocket Money: Let Rocket Money reach your financial goals faster by going to https://rocketmoney.com/legalaf Laundry Sauce: For 15% off your order head to https://LaundrySauce.com/LEGALAF and use code LEGALAF Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Time for Popak Live! Christmas and Hanukkah Eve edition. I'm Michael Popock. 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. You're on Popock Live. Four big topics today we're going to talk about. One of them, 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 Americans 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 going to present it. We're going to see what was actually in the report, the major findings. And even 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 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 interests 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. The fourth one, because 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 going to 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 believe Jimmy Carter gave back to Panama and the response. This 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 in a certain manner. 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 gravitas of life. I earned every piece of gray in my hair. I'm gonna 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? 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 a 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. This is a great way to stick it to Donald Trump. First of all, a week or so ago, the most clemency's, computation 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 or so pardons, meaning the conviction comes off the books as does the sentence, including for his son, Hunter Biden, the long national nightmare of the Hunter Biden laptop affair and junk pics is over. Thank you. Along with others who were also pardoned. But 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 from a dignity and morality standpoint and have them serve life imprisonment without possibility of parole. We can debate another time of efficacy, the morality of the death penalty being exercised by a democracy. I can do that another time. But for right now, 37 out of 40 people at Terry Ho, Indiana, thank you for the pronunciation

guide, those of 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? I'll leave it at dignity until I can think of another word from the thesaurus. other word from the thesaurus. The three are, you know, Dylan 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 worshipping during the High Holy Days lost their life. That guy's not going anywhere. The surviving brother of the two brothers who devised and implemented the Boston Marathon bombing, he's not going anywhere. As I said at the top of the hot take, this particular segment, And as I said at the top of the hot take, this particular segment, Donald Trump has a lust for execution.

He just announced 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 Cash Patel, to try to find more ways 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 Eighth 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 and 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. 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 two or three years ago who took out minority and black people at a supermarket in Buffalo. 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 US attorney because the crime was committed during the Biden administration or the purported crime. But the Luigi Mangione thing, that's going to continue 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'm sure he will continue and he will seek the death penalty. We'll continue to follow it here on Legal AF and 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 Friedman-Iknifilo here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF, and she is representing with her husband, along with her husband Mark Iknifilow, Luigi Mangione. 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 council, 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 the life and that will help them dispense justice in our system of justice. Now you might say, well, if Joe Biden's so pro-federal judiciary, why didn't 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 the 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 four, five, six, eight to 10 years to get the 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, 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 Magahow 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. 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 going to vote for it now

because you waited until after Donald Trump got in to give him an instant, like all of the 65 additional federal clerkships. And I'm not doing that. So he vetoed it. He just vetoed it. He warned them that he was going to veto it and veto it and he vetoed it. Now what does that mean? How secure is it, Pope Buck? Oh, it's pretty airtight secure. Because in order to override that veto and do this again, whether Trump's in or not or right now, there has to be a two-thirds 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 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 going to try to give more judges to Donald Trump, they're going to 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 at 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 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 sundown 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 going to 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 this, 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 and 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, 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. 300, sorry, 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 at a 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 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-up to try to stop the publication of the report? How do you know all about it? I'm going to cover that. And then I want to talk about Elon Musk taking orders from China, giving orders to Donald Trump, and effectively, by transit of 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 PO-POK 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 collaboration with Midas Touch. Hit the free subscribe button. And now, fortunately, we have sponsors here on Popoc Live, which keep Midas Touch and Legal AF 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 Five Minute

News and The Weekend Show and Uncovered and all sorts of other Midas things. 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 Popak Live now and 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 Minus Touch Network. Here's a word from our sponsors. I do laundry a lot,

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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? 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 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 or she will 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?

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, 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 counter evidence that would prove his innocence, which he never provided and delayed them on that. The was 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 sorta 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 Magalan. That's not going to lead to a prosecution, I don't think. And then on the federal side, Pam Bondi is not going to do it. And Donald Trump is going to give the guy, especially after the release of the report, he's going to give him a pardon. So the federal stuff is 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' mind because there's no statute of limitations. So if Donald Trump and the, I'm sorry, if MAGA loses 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 Gaetz wants to run for the Senate seat in Florida, abdicated or abandoned by Marco Rubio. 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 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 him. 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 PO-POK Live rubric. Now that we talked about Matt Gaetz, 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. It should be awarding ribbons at a 4F fare for the best pig or apple pie, but 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 am I talking about China and the restart of the government or the funding bill to stop the shutdown right on cue on Christmas? That just happened. There was a huge bipartisan bill 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, by quantum math, and there's different ways. 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. We already have the Office of Foreign Asset Control, 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 PO-POK 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 wanna do business in China? You're doing business with the Chinese Communist Party and its president.

The guy that Donald Trump's decided to 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, 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 and 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 maple syrup studies that need to be removed. This is an example of pork barrel at the highest levels in Washington. That was all bull, bullshit, sorry. Merry Christmas. That was all bulls**t. Sorry. Merry Christmas. That was

all bull. Nothing to do with that. That was all smoke screen. 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 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 in other votes and then they got this thing passed and the government is open until March. Now it'll be up to who? Nobody is going to 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. It's the last chance. MAGA Congress isn't going to take it up. MAGA Senate is not going to 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 PO-POK Live in the meantime, we've got another word from our sponsors. How closely do you track your bank statements and credit card transactions? I mean, honestly, I don't have time to do it as much as I'd like.

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with One Skin, your future will thank you. All right, welcome back to the Christmas Hanukkah equinox intersection, law, politics, and all holidays of PopePak 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, let's take Greenland. The Panama are in the news for all the wrong reasons, but for related reasons all through Donald Trump. First of all, let's take Greenland. Donald Trump, it was whispered in his ear in his first term by Ronald Lauder from the Lauder 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 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 wanna go to the new gallery off of Fifth Avenue and 86th Street. It's amazing. It's owned by the Lauder 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. 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 news, law and politics analysis. We 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 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 gold? This is Upper, Upper, Upper Canada.

But Donald Trump, oh, 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, it 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'd 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 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 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, 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 friendly. I feel like we're like 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 rockin' 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 is, 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 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, Muti,

Muti, sorry, Multano, Multano of Panama has basically responded already to Donald Trump much, much the way that President Scheinbaum 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 Patamanian 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 an 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 know what Donald Trump's going to do next.

He's so erratic, they don't want to F with him. This is what I heard during the campaign. This is what I hear now. I call it the legal weapon. Sorry, the lethal weapon school of thought. It's like the character that Mel Gibson played in the very beginning. He's so crazy, nobody knew what he was going to do and Murdoch, his partner, had to calm him down. But the criminals were like, oh my God, is this guy going to shoot us? 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 is talking about. So when Donald Trump, people are like, oh, he's adorable. He's talking about Greenland and Panama again. No! He's pissing me off because he's making us unstable and insecure. If I were a foreign enemy I'd be looking at Donald Trump like hmm 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. 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. 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 ESPN two, seriously. That's why we did it. That's why Ben, my Salas and me founded Legal AF. That's why we brought Karen Freeman and Nick Nifilo 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. PO-POK Live on Tuesday nights, it's a regular show. It's a thing now at 8 p.m. on the Midas Touch Network. Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.

We have the Midas Touch Legal AF. Wednesdays with Karen Freeman, Nick Nifilo. 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 sales, 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, a new show I'm doing with Anthony Davis, 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 PO-POK Live, next all things legal AF, I'm wishing everyone, everyone on the Midas Touch Network and Midas Touch, Midas Mighty, Legal AFers, 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 AF MTN.

That's at Legal AF MTN.