March 27, 2025 • 33 mins
In this feisty episode, hosts Katie Zakrzewski and Zach Torpy dive deep into the turbulent waters of tariffs, trade, and environmental politics in North America. They break down former President Trump's tariff roller coaster with Mexico and Canada, exploring the economic and environmental ripple effects of these on-again, off-again trade barriers.
Highlights include a profile of Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female and Jewish president, whose environmental and economic policies represent a significant departure from her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. From expanding renewable energy to improving mass transit and rail infrastructure, Sheinbaum’s bold commitments could reshape Mexico’s role in North America.
Katie and Zach also critically assess Trump's approach to tariffs, immigration, and international relations, questioning the sustainability and rationale behind recent trade policies.
Episode Highlights:
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Analysis of Trump's trade policies and their chaotic implications.
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Claudia Sheinbaum’s groundbreaking presidency and environmental ambitions.
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Economic realities of U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade interdependencies.
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Environmental impacts of shifting supply chains due to tariffs.
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Insightful (and snarky) takes on immigration policies and cross-border issues.
Action Steps (Katie’s libertarian endorsement): “File your taxes or don't—clearly, it doesn’t matter anymore. Steal street signs; you've already paid for them anyway!”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Zach (00:04):
Hello, and welcome to the Green Tea Party, where we discuss
conservative solutions to environmental problems. My name is Zach
Torpy.
>> Katie (00:10):
And I'm Katie Zachreski. Together, we'll guide you through
complex issues and provide strategies to address them,
all while remaining faithful to our conservative values.
>> Zach (00:19):
Trust me, it's a good time.
>> Katie (00:21):
Yeah, it's a party, so grab your mugs and
we'll pour the tea.
Why has my cat got a bald spot? What the
hell? Why don't we. What? Sorry, I'm
breathing. Uh, Zach, why. What are we
talking about today, buddy? What do we want to be after, bro?
>> Zach (00:42):
So, considering the on and off again,
is. Is it going to happen or not? Yes. No tariffs that
Trump has implemented on our two
neighbors. Like the, uh, the couple that
just. Will they, won't they? And you never know. And, uh,
this is Trump's actual passion. It's not Melania, it
is tariffs. And he can't make up his mind.
>> Katie (01:02):
I do believe that. I really do.
>> Zach (01:04):
His favorite word. I think he just saw this in the dictionary one day and was
like, that's it. I found my true love.
>> Katie (01:09):
This is one true love other than Eastern
European women. Let's go, Donnie.
>> Zach (01:16):
So he has slapped substantial tariffs on
our two neighbors, and so
our biggest trading partner, and I'm not sure where Canada ranks.
They might be, too. They might, but they're pretty far up there.
And it is a very difficult
place to be, especially with all the interconnections between
shipping across borders, products traveling back and forth
(01:37):
numerous times. So we're trying to understand
Trump's reasoning and, uh, how we should view Mexico and their
newly elected president, Claudia
Sheinbaum already had a few spats with Trump.
>> Katie (01:47):
Yeah. Um, is it. Trump
wasted no time making enemies within the first 100
days of office. Um, and it has been, as you said, very funny
to watch the on again, off again. Will they?
Won't they? Yes, we have tariffs. No, we don't
psych back and forth. So who even
knows what the status will be by the time this
episode comes out or how many times it will have changed since
(02:10):
then.
>> Zach (02:11):
Yes.
>> Katie (02:11):
So tell us more. Is that.
>> Zach (02:13):
I will say my stocks are very much enjoying the certainty
that Trump is bringing to American leadership.
>> Katie (02:17):
Oh, my God. I was just talking about that with Chandler
the other day. I was like, okay, should we. At what
point do we crash the stock market unwillingly again?
>> Zach (02:26):
Um, so invest in gold, everybody.
Gold bars.
>> Katie (02:30):
Yeah. And he. And even he was like, yeah, I bought a
bunch of Bitcoin when it started, and I don't know,
um, I'm not feeling too hot right now. And I. And I was like, man.
And then I told him about your saga with Tesla, and
I was like, good luck to everybody who owns stock. Because, no, you
don't. So. Because, no, you really don't.
>> Zach (02:47):
So.
>> Katie (02:47):
Ari.
>> Zach (02:48):
So starting with Claudia Sheinbaum, the newly elected President
of Mexico. She's the first female and first
Jewish president of Mexico. And she did recently condemn
Israel.
>> Katie (02:58):
Wow.
>> Zach (02:59):
Brought over and recognized Palestine, which was.
>> Katie (03:01):
Friendly fire will not be tolerated. Sorry.
>> Zach (03:06):
Academic background. She has a bachelor's in physics
from the National Autonomous University of Mexico
and a master in physics from the same university and a
doctorate in energy engineering from
Berkeley, California.
>> Katie (03:19):
Neat. Well, I know what we need to go get a doctorate in.
>> Zach (03:21):
Yeah, it's a pretty useful skill to have,
trying to balance all the. All the energy and where it's going and how it's
being produced.
>> Katie (03:29):
Hair.
>> Zach (03:30):
Hair raising.
>> Katie (03:31):
Yeah. Actually, especially now.
>> Zach (03:33):
And after doing all that, she also became a professor at University
of Autonomous Mexico, or National
Autonomous University of Mexico. It's a. It's a. They need
to get a better name.
>> Katie (03:43):
Figure that out.
>> Zach (03:44):
Must sound better in Spanish.
>> Katie (03:45):
Yeah. Yeah, I hope so, because otherwise it's unam, and that
makes me think Vietnam. So maybe we need to, uh.
Or maybe unam. But that. That just makes me think of
Vietnam as well. Yeah, let's take that one back to the
drawing board.
>> Zach (03:57):
For her career, in 2000, she was appointed the Mexico
City's environmental minister by her,
the former mayor and former president, Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador. She oversaw the introduction of the
city's bus system. In 2006, she contributed to
the climate Change mitigation section of the
IPCC's fourth and fifth assessments
report. And the writers of the report were awarded a
(04:20):
Nobel Prize. I guess that's an accolade. Working on a project
together, I have
probably would have like a thousand, but it's something.
>> Katie (04:29):
Yeah, I don't have an IPCC award.
Works for me.
>> Zach (04:36):
Um.
>> Katie (04:36):
Um.
>> Zach (04:36):
She was elected mayor of Mexico city in, uh, July
2018, receiving 50% of the vote
in a field of seven candidates, which is quite impressive.
>> Katie (04:45):
Really big. Yeah.
>> Zach (04:46):
Her government expanded rainwater collection,
reformed waste management, began a reforestation
program, announced, uh, plans to overall the city subway
system, and had massive investments
in modernizing trains and shoring up existing infrastructure.
And introduced the capital's first metrobus rapid
transit system. Then expanded it and added
electrical lines to reduce the pollution that was
(05:09):
being caused. And in 2023, she stepped down
as Mexico City mayor to seek A run for
presidency as a candidate for Moreno, which is the party
that Lopez Obrador founded. Um, she's the ideological
successor to Lopez Obrador. They are very much been in line
and she, he's been grooming her to step up and
take a larger role after you step down. Which,
(05:30):
considering how popular it was, I was questioning if he would walk away. But it's
a big thing for a guy, for a person with that
much power to step away when they're that popular.
>> Katie (05:37):
I have to say, I feel like that's definitely a testament of
character.
>> Zach (05:41):
Yeah. But she is, she does have some major differences from
Lopez Obrador. He was very big into oil and
trying to increase, uh, the oil output in Mexico.
Wasn't very concerned with the climate. Whereas Claudia,
Claudia Scheinbaum is much more focused on, um,
the environment with her IPCC credentials and
pushing for mass transit and getting away
(06:01):
from polluting fossil fuels and subsidizing renewable
energy. She has promised to boost renewable energy investment
by, um, $13.57
billion. So she's a new
trajectory for Mexico, but the same has
the, some of the same popular populist
tendencies. So it'll be interesting to see where she leaves
Mexico, whether she goes more environmentally focused or
(06:23):
if she's able to stay that road or if balancing the economy
is going to be more difficult, especially with the on again,
off again tariffs that she can't predict.
>> Katie (06:31):
Yeah, I mean, I feel a little bit better knowing what I
do about everything that's been going on with
Canada and the U.S. obviously
with our environmental policies. So knowing that at
least somebody in one of the three North American
countries cares about the environment makes
me feel, hey, you know what? We'll take one out of three better
than none out of three. So.
>> Zach (06:53):
Yeah, well, going to be a heavy burden to steer because
Mexico is currently the 11th largest
oil producer in the world,
extracting. Yeah, extracting 1.6 billion
barrels of crude oil a day in 2022.
>> Katie (07:06):
Oh, my gravy. Okay. Yeah, we're, we're in the
major leagues now. Okay.
>> Zach (07:10):
Yeah. Also among the largest natural gas importers in the
world. Probably a lot from the US Lopez, uh,
Obrador is heavily committed to growing the oil sector.
And that is not the way that Claudia
Sheinbaum wants to go.
>> Katie (07:22):
Oh, thank goodness for that.
>> Zach (07:24):
We'll have to see how she's weighing that. During her campaign, she committed to
generating 45% of Mexico's electricity from
renewable resources by 2030, which is,
it's a big step, especially considering they're at
24% right now.
>> Katie (07:37):
Yeah, that's big going.
>> Zach (07:38):
Go bold or go home.
>> Katie (07:39):
You know hell better than America. I feel like we bumped the
new goal by 2% or five years every
two years.
>> Zach (07:46):
So they're like, what happens? A 1% improvement in a year.
>> Katie (07:49):
I know, I know. At first it was 1 degree Celsius, now it's
1.5 degrees. And then it was, well, we'll get it by 20. Then it
was, well, we'll get it by 2030. Now it's 2050.
So let's hope we get it before 2100.
>> Zach (08:00):
Keep those goal posts right.
>> Katie (08:02):
Yeah. Never let them know your next move.
>> Zach (08:03):
Shine bomb. She's really committed to evs, and she, uh,
wants Mexico to produce its own EV called the
Olinea, which is supposed to be a car that's $25,000 and
compete with regular ICE vehicles in Mexico.
>> Katie (08:15):
I'd drive it. Yeah.
>> Zach (08:17):
I'd be interested to see the specs, see how that's a pretty affordable car
for a new car and.
>> Katie (08:21):
For sure. Yeah.
>> Zach (08:22):
Just got to see how good that range is because that's usually
the tricky part with these cheap EVs.
>> Katie (08:27):
One particular Muskrat who, uh, is
writhing at the prospect of a competitive.
>> Zach (08:33):
Oh, yeah, uh, she's planning to continue
expanding passenger rail, and she will. She's
not going to overhaul AMLO's infrastructure projects. So
for those who don't know, Mexico has done a lot,
is working on some major rail projects. These are probably
very good things if you enjoy visiting Mexico and if you enjoy
efficient shipping. Correct. So
Mexico is built a, um, a
(08:55):
corridor around Cancun to
go and visit different, um,
Aztec and. Or different Mayan temples.
Mayas were in the Yucatan. Aztecs were in
Mexico City. So visiting different Mayan, uh,
temples and historical sites and basically just trying
to boost tourism throughout the larger Yucatan
region. For those who don't know, I have a fun.
>> Katie (09:17):
Fact, Zach. Fact. Zach, fact.
>> Zach (09:20):
So the word Aztec is made up. That
is a modern term. The people we call the
Aztecs call themselves the Mexicans, which
is where we get Mexico from.
>> Katie (09:31):
Interesting. I didn't know that.
>> Zach (09:32):
Yeah. Yeah. And Alexander von Humboldt
was the one who coined the term Aztec in 1810
as a collective term applied to people linked to the
trade, custom, religion and language. The M. Mexica
States and the Triple alliance, which is all based around
Mexico City.
>> Katie (09:48):
Wonder where that, like, what was. Like, why that word I
wonder, like, what, like does that.
>> Zach (09:53):
My understanding was this. They just needed something different because they were like,
we can't call them Mexicans because there's Mexicans
today.
>> Katie (09:59):
So it was like their version of like when they would say
oriental, which is no longer, um,
the correct word. How interesting. Oh
my gosh. They came up with like their version
of Hispanic. What the heck? My
gosh.
>> Zach (10:15):
Yeah. Gotta differentiate in history.
>> Katie (10:18):
Well that, what a fun Zach fact. Thank you
for that. Wow.
>> Zach (10:22):
Hope you enjoyed that.
>> Katie (10:23):
I did, thank you.
>> Zach (10:26):
So shinebomb is also planning to, uh, continue
the rail project called the Isthmus
of I'm gonna slaughter this Tehuatepec, uh,
interoceanic corridor. That was definitely the
wrong pronunciation, but I don't know how to say that.
>> Katie (10:40):
Hey, that's way better than I'd have done. So that
sounds good to me, sounding like a native speaker, in my
opinion.
>> Zach (10:47):
And, uh, this is supposed to be a rail line to supplement the
Panama Canal. It's going to cost an estimated
$2.8 billion, which is, you know, engineer estimates
never really hold. It's going to be a 188 mile
corridor connecting the Pacific and, and the
Gulf of America, Mexico, I don't know, whatever you want
to call that place.
There'll,
(11:08):
um, be able to handle 1.4 million
20 foot equivalent units annually by
2033. For reference, the Panama
Canal currently handles 8 million TEUs
annually. So it'll be, it's not going to be able to replace the
Panama Canal, but it'll be a nice supplement. And you know
those testy, uh, supply chains, you always
want to improve those and get those moving a little faster. So always
(11:31):
appreciate extra infrastructure.
>> Katie (11:32):
Yeah, I know nothing about numbers, but I do know those are some big numbers.
Let's go big numbers.
>> Zach (11:36):
Mexico is currently grappling with a severe drought
that began in 2011 and has been getting worse and
worse. A lot of scientists blame climate change and
up to 71% of the national territory
has high or very high water stress. So that's part
of the reason Kilodi shine bombs and focus on, um, water
resilience and improving water infrastructure. Between
(11:56):
2001 and 2022, an annual average of
208,000 hectares of forest vegetation was
lost nationwide. And Mexico's economy is the
12th largest in the world, uh, by GP, and the
second largest in Latin America. I believe that's
following Brazil.
>> Katie (12:12):
That would make sense.
>> Zach (12:13):
So Mexico is a critical component
of the North South America
trade and it could be a unifi.
Unifier, uh, in Atlantic Pacific trade across
the, uh, regions and connecting the east coast of the US to
the west coast of the US which would be very beneficial, especially
with the fears of China taking over the Panama Canal. Even
(12:34):
though Trump seems to have, uh, scared them straight.
>> Katie (12:36):
Yeah, he. He whipped out his favorite little T word,
and it was all quiet on
the. What eastern front? I have no idea. It doesn't
matter.
>> Zach (12:45):
Southern front.
>> Katie (12:46):
Yeah. Yeah. Which. Yeah. Which front is it now? All of
them. On all the fronts.
>> Zach (12:50):
Done.
>> Katie (12:51):
Do we have enemies on. Is there anywhere where we don't have
enemies? Is there a front where there's not a problem?
No. Okay.
>> Zach (12:57):
All right. Um, trade with Mexico. Mexico
was United States top trading partner in 2024 with
$840 billion in trade.
>> Katie (13:05):
Are, ah, you serious?
>> Zach (13:07):
Yeah, they're a major trade
partner. And in 2023, they're 807
billion. So it's increasing currently. Canada totaled
782 billion, while trade with China
totaled 576 billion.
>> Katie (13:19):
Okay, now, whoa, whoa. Okay. So if
you'd have asked me, like, at any given time
in any given year, who I thought traded the
most with the US it would have been China.
>> Zach (13:30):
Tariffs are effective at making people not want to
buy stuff from that country and making you not want to import
stuff. So they do work. It is effective.
But we are now tariffing our two largest trading
partners who are our neighbors and are, uh,
very interconnected with our entire
economic system.
>> Katie (13:48):
Zach, I really feel like you just sprung a trap on me, because
with that exclamation, I think I proved the entire
crux of your whole episode. Wow. That is
like. That's. Wow. I'm honestly
speechless. That's. Wow. Okay, well, thanks for
listening to Green Tea Party Radio. If you want to hear our show on your college
radio station. Uh, yeah, no, that is. That's like,
genuinely crazy. That is.
>> Zach (14:10):
Yeah.
>> Katie (14:10):
And that makes me wonder, like, you. And I'm sure you'll get into
it here in a minute, but, uh, if we had that impact with
China, and
if I assume it would have this impact with Mexico and
Canada, then would we just not get those goods? Or
is there, like, a dark horse or a fourth country
that would eek its way
(14:31):
into the top three somehow if these two get pushed
down. Anywho, I'm not going to go into that. That's a little speculative.
I'll let you take this episode where.
>> Zach (14:38):
You lot of trade policy. We could probably do a whole trade policy
and tariff episode, discuss how that will impact the
US And a crystal.
>> Katie (14:46):
Ball episode where we make our crazy economic
prediction.
>> Zach (14:49):
So Mexico's a critical trade partner, and there are
times that products will cross the border
seven times between US, Mexico and
Canadian borders, especially for vehicles
where, like engine parts, car seats, they all go through
different steps along the process with different companies specializing in
different tasks. So that's part of the way that global trade
works, is that you'll have factories that specialize
(15:12):
in one very critical thing, and then that
product will just travel numerous times or stuff will be shipped
across borders to get a complete
product.
>> Katie (15:21):
Wow, that is crazy.
>> Zach (15:22):
So Trump has demanded drug and immigration
issues must face, uh, be handled or they will face.
Or Mexico will face steep tariffs which would
significantly damage Mexico's economy due to the high
interconnection of our two economies and how much more reliant they are
on us than we are on them. So it's a very
imbalanced partnership, and Trump views
that as a negative because we have a trade
(15:44):
imbalance with them. But that's a very
win, winner take all kind of look on things where
it's. Whereas I always take the view of
capitalism of a good economy, good
fortune, good tides, raise all boats. There
doesn't have to be a loser. You can be two winners. Yeah.
>> Katie (16:02):
And, and I don't know. Well, and I think for me, as, as
I hear that, what concerns me more is
that it's a criminal justice major. I hate saying
shit like that, but I mean, Trump has this,
this idea that because he said, hey, Mexico, you
guys have a drug and an immigration problem and a
crime problem, that Mexico's gonna go. We did. Oh, my God. Thank
(16:23):
you for pointing that out, President Trump. We are going to address that.
Right. No idea that
this was at all a problem until you mentioned something
about a tariff. This is, uh, thank you, sir. So, like, I
don't know what he thinks would have changed to
equip Mexico to fix
the issue, assuming that this is an issue they'd want
(16:43):
to fix all along in the first place. So, I mean,
you've got the issue of if they're even going to be
at a greater economic disadvantage. I really don't know how they
could fix this problem in the first place. And then you've also
got the issue of, well, if these problems exist because the
entire government and criminal justice system in
Mexico is corrupt, then you're just preaching to the choir
(17:03):
at that point. Like, the people who have the ability to change it
know that there's a problem and don't care. So I don't really know,
like, what that looks like in Mexican
diplomacy to Trump to fix it, because they
haven't.
>> Zach (17:15):
Yeah. In a country where political candidates get offed
consistently.
>> Katie (17:18):
Yeah.
>> Zach (17:19):
Like it's hard to take a stand. And
it's a difficult question. There is no known right answer
to solving this. Although I do think legalizing marijuana and
taking that away as an income source, maybe having some
stricter ability to track the guns that are crossing
the border and reduce that would help.
But they're, they are very armed and very
(17:39):
dangerous cartels down there. It is. Is it worth
designating them as terrorists and kicking a horn's nest and
causing international crisis by doing strikes
in Mexico, as some
proponents have proposed? I think that's a little crazy,
but crazier things have happened.
>> Katie (17:55):
Yeah. And I would probably think it was less crazy if they weren't our
next door neighbor. Um, because it's one thing to fire a rocket at somebody on
the other side of the world. It's another thing to fire a rocket at a
guy who could feasibly drive up to where I'm at in a day.
So, I mean, there's that first and foremost.
But I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know. I don't know
what that would look like. And I mean, I'm of the opinion, and, uh, I don't know that this
(18:15):
is a conservative opinion. I don't know whether or not you.
I don't know what political alignment this opinion is.
I'm of the opinion that a good
portion of drugs should probably be legalized and
then regulated and taxed.
>> Zach (18:30):
Uh, libertarian opinion. Except for the tax. Yeah.
>> Katie (18:32):
Okay. Yeah. There, there. Lo and behold, ladies and
gentlemen, Katie found a new political party right in the middle of Green
Tea Party Radio. Sorry for future production issues,
but, but yeah, no, I guess that that would be the libertarian
opinion, but really I think that it would take a
decriminalization and then a regulation and a
taxation of drugs to cause that
issue to begin to go. To even begin to go
(18:54):
away, to.
>> Zach (18:56):
Take away their income streams and reduce their
reliance on cartels. I think another.
>> Katie (19:01):
Yeah, and I mean, and I would want to do that before we start
nuking them. Um, but as you were saying. Sorry.
>> Zach (19:06):
I also believe in the, um, economic theory of a rising
tide raises all votes. And I believe my
dream would be that our two neighbors would be two,
the second and third largest economies in the world. And
people wouldn't need to immigrate here. People wouldn't need to join the
cartels because the economy works
down there and there's jobs that they can get out of high
school, out of college, that there's factories there that they can go work
(19:29):
in. And work with our, uh, with America and
producing products that can be then exported to the rest of the world.
I think we need to be working as partners, not
antagonizing them and treating them as enemies.
>> Katie (19:39):
So I'm probably about to reveal my
Western privilege here and demonstrate just how
uneducated I am as an American. But I
feel like. And this is something that maybe just nobody has ever
bothered to do, I feel like you hear a lot about the
model Arab League or, uh, well, uh, wow, did
I just show my hand as to which group I was in in college? I
(19:59):
feel like you hear a lot about the Arab League and the United
nations and the European Union, but you
really don't hear a lot about, like,
a North American alliance where Canada and Mexico
and the United States, like, frequently meet and work with each
other to strategize economic
diplomacy. And I don't know why the number one nation in
the world would not want to talk to its northern and
(20:22):
southern neighbors to figure out how to become even
stronger. I mean, I just feel like we're so
invested in what, like, groups of countries in the
Middle east and in Africa and in Europe are
doing that we completely forget that we are technically in our
own group of countries.
>> Zach (20:37):
Yeah. So there was an initiative at some point
in South America to
have a union of South American nations, and
they're trying to work together. But
it's. A lot of. A lot of countries are very
independent down there. A lot of countries have very differing political
views. And with North America, it really is
(20:57):
just. The US Just doesn't really care
for the opinions of other countries. And
we. They're like, we dictate to you. We don't want to really hear
your opinions. But I feel like we could maintain
a more beneficial relationship by working together.
>> Katie (21:12):
I feel like. I feel like, in America's
mind, Canada is your annoying
millennial uncle.
He's, like, kind of cringy, but super polite.
And then Mexico is the little brother that
your mom forced you to take to the playground with you.
And so I, like. I genuinely feel like that is what the United
States thinks about Canada and Mexico. They're like, I don't want to be here with
(21:33):
either of these people. Um, and it's just easier for me to
ignore them at the Thanksgiving table to try to engage with them.
And I feel like if we're going to engage with them at all, this is not the
way to go about it. I don't think these tariffs are in it.
>> Zach (21:44):
Yeah. Yeah. And I think one thing Trump has
effectively done is instituted a state of fear
in, in our neighbors, which I don't think is a good
thing. But it has reduced immigration encounters
by 70 to 80%, which I guess will
happen when people are, when you're threatening to send people across the
border to a mass, ah, prisons in El Salvador that don't
have any, uh, due process. So there's, There
(22:07):
is this. He's reduced immigration. It is
cruel, but it is working. But that's
also is reduce immigration. The end all, be
all. Should we be working on reducing legal immigration
and open up pathways to legal immigration? I would love
to have a policy of allowing immigrants who
want to come and work in construction, building more houses and upping
that supply, giving them some kind of visa for
(22:30):
work.
>> Katie (22:30):
Well, and I mean, I feel like this is something that a lot of
Republicans have neglected to talk about. I would even say a
lot of conservatives, to be fair. Um, and it's one of my favorite
Reagan clips of all time. And maybe I'm a little biased in saying that
because I'm, what, third,
fourth generation Polish immigrant, literally 50%
Polish. But there's this incredible Reagan clip
(22:51):
where he's explaining that, like, you can go to Germany, but you're not
a German. You can go to Russia, but you're not a Russian. You can
go to Canada, but you're not a Canadian. But if you come to the
United States, you can be an American. And this
whole country is founded on the principle of
going somewhere in search of the best life imaginable, if
you choose to build it for yourself.
>> Zach (23:10):
Manifest destiny.
>> Katie (23:12):
I mean, look, that's what some folks call it. But I really
do think that America up until maybe like
20 years ago was the place where you went if
you wanted to live the best life in the world. And to be honest, like, you
can still live a really, really good life here, obviously. But,
uh, I mean, we can get into specifics. We don't have the time on
a show like this. But I feel like to suddenly
(23:32):
say that people who are not
like the cartel, okay, sure, they broke the law
by coming here, but they go to work every day, they
go to church, they send their kids to school, they pay their
taxes, they file their working visa, whatever,
to send those people home to a place that you know is not as
good as us without even giving them the
opportunity to like, okay, do you, do you want to be deported or do you want to
(23:55):
stay here? Well, if you want to stay here, you have to become a citizen. Do you want to become a
citizen or do you want to get deported. Like, to me, that would have made the most
sense to be like, okay, we'll run a background check or whatever.
If you're not the cartel, here's your driver's
license, go to work like that. That would have made so
much more sense to me than let's storm
every church in middle school because we don't like the
(24:15):
cartel. Well, I don't think the cartel is sitting in third
grade. I don't. I really
don't. So, I mean, whatever, maybe that's a based
take as a conservative, but I just feel like there
are better ways from a, uh, patriotic
standpoint that this could have been handled and even from an economic
standpoint that this could have been handled because now we're starting to see the
(24:36):
economic repercussions, especially here in Arkansas. I mean, this
is like not even an environmental discussion necessarily
anymore. This is just a whole separate tangent. I guess economic
griping is in the vein of this show, but, I mean, there's a lot of
services and companies here that are shutting down or that you can't get now,
and definitely not for the price that you got before because they were
predominantly done by immigrants. Um, and I don't know if
you've noticed or not, but shit's really expensive already as it
(24:59):
is, and it already takes a long time to get, and now we've made that
even harder. So I don't know how a party that
prides itself on being economically savvy or on being
pro life or being patriotic or
upholding human dignity could do any of the things that it's
done since November and probably even before
then, to be honest and consider itself like the party of the
(25:19):
people. Like, get a grip.
>> Zach (25:20):
Yeah, well, since you brought up economics, I want to discuss some of
the.
Let's talk about them, some of the economics of these tariffs.
So last I checked, this could be very different
from when this episode is airing. And I was about to say, yeah.
>> Katie (25:32):
It might be different.
>> Zach (25:33):
I hold no, this number could very well change.
The Trump was planning on imposing 25% tariffs, import
tariffs on Cana, Canada and Mexico. Last year,
the United States imported $79 billion worth
of cars and light trucks from Mexico. So that's going to
be an immediate impact. We also imported another
81 billion auto, uh, parts from Mexico. And
(25:54):
according to TD Economics, the
average price of car could rise by as much as
$3,000.
>> Katie (26:01):
Oh, my God.
>> Zach (26:02):
Car's already really expensive for no reason. And now they're going
to go up another $3,000 and become,
I mean, Even more unaffordable than they already are.
>> Katie (26:10):
Do you think Elon Musk is going to cut the price of the Tesla to
compete with the inflated prices of other
cars as a result of the tariffs?
>> Zach (26:18):
Elon Musk is doing nothing to help
the average American.
>> Katie (26:22):
Now I feel like the gif of when he's, like, smoking weed on the Joe
Rogan show and he's like, my brain exploded.
Like, I just practice plot right here on
Green Tea Party radio.
>> Zach (26:32):
Yeah. And with inflation, the US also
bought more than $49 billion in agricultural products
from Mexico.
>> Katie (26:39):
That's crazy.
>> Zach (26:36):
47%
of all imported vegetables and 40% of all fruits
were from Mexico. Where are we going to get our avocado
toast? That's going to be another, like, $7. Maybe the boomers are
right. That's the key to getting a, uh, down payment for a house is
skipping the avocado toast.
>> Katie (26:54):
Yeah. If you want to afford this $3,000 price hike
on a new car, you got to quit the avocado toast. See,
Zach, the government is helping us, and we just
didn't know it yet. We just had to have a silver
lining. The government is helping us afford new, inflated
car prices by getting rid of our avocado toast.
Yeah.
>> Zach (27:12):
And on a more environmental note, since we are an environmental
show, mainly, but since we're diverging today,
this is basically going to force supply chains
to move away from the U.S. we were having a
huge resurgence in supply chains, moving to
Mexico, South America, and coming back towards
our section of the world and moving away from Asia.
(27:34):
But this is punishing those people who made those
moves to become more stable and more secure
in North America. And it's going to make shipping costs
go up. It's going to make us increase pollution from shipping.
I just don't see the sense in hurting two neighbors,
that they're not perfect, but there are
neighbors, and they're not going anywhere unless we really do
(27:54):
invade fricking Canada for some reason.
This is. These are our neighbors for the long term. And it's
important to have good working relationships and good
economic policy with them. Hope that we all
develop together.
>> Katie (28:06):
Oh, my God. Give my dog just a second to finish. Having a, uh,
stroke because somebody delivered food to us. My
God. You will depose
God. Um, yeah.
So how do you feel about our first and 52nd state,
Zach? Um, do you think that would. Do you
think. You know, because I know he joked about that, but, like, at the same
time, what would be the point of the tariffs then?
(28:28):
Like, if I was Mexico I'd be like, you know what? We sign up to be the
51st.
>> Zach (28:32):
State, then cuts off some issues.
>> Katie (28:34):
We, uh, would like to be in American territory now and we would like those
tariffs to go away. Thank you.
>> Zach (28:39):
What's really funny is America doesn't
want those headaches. We don't want no
Canada.
>> Katie (28:45):
That would just, we, we can't deal with the we've got
going on right now, much less everybody else's
problems.
>> Zach (28:52):
Yeah. And are we going to hold up their
very socialist health care and socialist tax policy,
or are we going to Americanize them? If we're invading, are we going
to deal with hunting down rebel Canadians in the
deep Arctic Canada tundra? What are we
doing?
>> Katie (29:07):
Imagine moving to Canada because you hate Trump and then
Trump annexes Canada. I'd be so mad.
Like, no, I didn't vote for this. My God.
>> Zach (29:16):
So I think it's important. I think Trump is taking a
geopolitical and economic misstep with these
tariffs. I think he's hurting two important allies of the
US And I worry about the long term
effects that this will have even after his
presidency of our relations with our
allies.
>> Katie (29:32):
Yeah, I don't know that, that there's anybody I
can think of who would be eligible to run within
the next decade who could fix a
colossal goof of this nature. Here's,
here's the part that, like, bothers me and obviously I
won't get too far in depth because we're towards the end of the show
here, but the decisions that Trump is making right
(29:53):
now have ramifications far beyond the next four
years. And I mean, sure, you could probably make that argument with any
president, but I feel like it's really hard to
rebuild entire departments and sectors
in a, uh, four to eight year period. Obviously, we know it's
pretty easy to nuke them in a short amount of time, but
I don't know the decisions that are being made
(30:14):
can be. I don't even know that the presidency
will carry the weight that it used to carry before, because
I don't know that it would be up to a president at that point to
get done what they need to do in a certain amount of time without just
issuing executive orders. And at that point, why even be a
democracy?
>> Zach (30:29):
Yeah, I mean, we should also do a full deep
dive of the ineptitude of Congress and just the
ceding of every power that Congress has
over the past, I don't know,
continuously for the past, like twenty hundred years. They're
just, Congress is like, wow, we don't want to do our job President,
you just do everything. And we'll sort of just
(30:49):
check it off and be like, yeah, it works.
>> Katie (30:51):
Yeah. And we'll, we'll take the W. If it's good, we'll take the elephants
bad.
>> Zach (30:54):
Yeah. And if it's against us, we'll be like, oh, you're the worst thing ever. And
if you're for us, if you're doing it for us, we'll be like, yeah, you're the best
ever.
>> Katie (31:00):
Yeah. If it goes badly, the other party did it.
>> Zach (31:03):
So hopefully Trump will find a. Hopefully
Trump's policies will start making sense
soon.
>> Katie (31:10):
Or concepts have a plan.
>> Zach (31:13):
Someone will talk to him, um, and explain
how hurting our two closest allies
and breaking alliances with our neighbors across the
pond and everything will is not great
for economics or strategic global
strategy.
>> Katie (31:28):
Long term, somebody could hand the President their 9th grade
economics textbook. That would be fabulous.
>> Zach (31:34):
All right, well, that's all I got for today. Let's get to our
closing.
>> Katie (31:38):
Sounds great to me. For you, our listener. Email us
with your thoughts. Our email is
infoeenteapartyradio.com thank you
for.
>> Zach (31:46):
Listening to Green Tea Party Radio. And a very special thank you
to all of our patrons. We couldn't do this without you. If you're interested in
getting early access to Episodes as well as Green Tea Party Radio
Merc, check us out@greentpartyradio.com
for feedback. Tell us what's on your mind and follow us on Facebook,
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>> Katie (32:02):
And just so you know, this is our passion project. We don't have any
organizational sponsor. Just a reminder that Green Tea
Party Radio is not representative of the Diocese of Little
Rock, Catholic Climate Covenant, NASA, or any of our
employers. We are building a movement because we want the world to
know that conservatives, particularly young ones like us,
have important things to say about climate change.
>> Zach (32:22):
If you want to hear our show on your college radio station, email
us@infoeentheardradio.com and give us the
details about your campus and your radio station. That email again is
infoeentheartradio.com
thanks for listening.
>> Katie (32:34):
Thank you for listening.
I just realized we forgot action steps. Okay, here's your
action step. File your taxes or don't. It clearly
doesn't matter anymore. Who cares whether you
pay your taxes or not? That's my official endorsement as
the conservative libertarian on this show.
Tell you what, Zach. We had such bad winds the other day that it
blew down a street sign on my street that I like. I took it home. You
(32:55):
know why? Because I paid taxes. It belongs to me anyway.
It's mine. Pay your taxes. Don't. Who
cares? There is a good chance they're not going to be used for the
you want them to be used for anyway. Steel street signs. That's
it. That's your extra steps for today.
Hello, and welcome to the Green Tea Party, where we discuss
conservative solutions to environmental problems. My name is Zach
Torpy.
>> Katie (00:10):
And I'm Katie Zachreski. Together, we'll guide you through
complex issues and provide strategies to address them,
all while remaining faithful to our conservative values.
>> Zach (00:19):
Trust me, it's a good time.
>> Katie (00:21):
Yeah, it's a party, so grab your mugs and
we'll pour the tea.
Why has my cat got a bald spot? What the
hell? Why don't we. What? Sorry, I'm
breathing. Uh, Zach, why. What are we
talking about today, buddy? What do we want to be after, bro?
>> Zach (00:42):
So, considering the on and off again,
is. Is it going to happen or not? Yes. No tariffs that
Trump has implemented on our two
neighbors. Like the, uh, the couple that
just. Will they, won't they? And you never know. And, uh,
this is Trump's actual passion. It's not Melania, it
is tariffs. And he can't make up his mind.
>> Katie (01:02):
I do believe that. I really do.
>> Zach (01:04):
His favorite word. I think he just saw this in the dictionary one day and was
like, that's it. I found my true love.
>> Katie (01:09):
This is one true love other than Eastern
European women. Let's go, Donnie.
>> Zach (01:16):
So he has slapped substantial tariffs on
our two neighbors, and so
our biggest trading partner, and I'm not sure where Canada ranks.
They might be, too. They might, but they're pretty far up there.
And it is a very difficult
place to be, especially with all the interconnections between
shipping across borders, products traveling back and forth
(01:37):
numerous times. So we're trying to understand
Trump's reasoning and, uh, how we should view Mexico and their
newly elected president, Claudia
Sheinbaum already had a few spats with Trump.
>> Katie (01:47):
Yeah. Um, is it. Trump
wasted no time making enemies within the first 100
days of office. Um, and it has been, as you said, very funny
to watch the on again, off again. Will they?
Won't they? Yes, we have tariffs. No, we don't
psych back and forth. So who even
knows what the status will be by the time this
episode comes out or how many times it will have changed since
(02:10):
then.
>> Zach (02:11):
Yes.
>> Katie (02:11):
So tell us more. Is that.
>> Zach (02:13):
I will say my stocks are very much enjoying the certainty
that Trump is bringing to American leadership.
>> Katie (02:17):
Oh, my God. I was just talking about that with Chandler
the other day. I was like, okay, should we. At what
point do we crash the stock market unwillingly again?
>> Zach (02:26):
Um, so invest in gold, everybody.
Gold bars.
>> Katie (02:30):
Yeah. And he. And even he was like, yeah, I bought a
bunch of Bitcoin when it started, and I don't know,
um, I'm not feeling too hot right now. And I. And I was like, man.
And then I told him about your saga with Tesla, and
I was like, good luck to everybody who owns stock. Because, no, you
don't. So. Because, no, you really don't.
>> Zach (02:47):
So.
>> Katie (02:47):
Ari.
>> Zach (02:48):
So starting with Claudia Sheinbaum, the newly elected President
of Mexico. She's the first female and first
Jewish president of Mexico. And she did recently condemn
Israel.
>> Katie (02:58):
Wow.
>> Zach (02:59):
Brought over and recognized Palestine, which was.
>> Katie (03:01):
Friendly fire will not be tolerated. Sorry.
>> Zach (03:06):
Academic background. She has a bachelor's in physics
from the National Autonomous University of Mexico
and a master in physics from the same university and a
doctorate in energy engineering from
Berkeley, California.
>> Katie (03:19):
Neat. Well, I know what we need to go get a doctorate in.
>> Zach (03:21):
Yeah, it's a pretty useful skill to have,
trying to balance all the. All the energy and where it's going and how it's
being produced.
>> Katie (03:29):
Hair.
>> Zach (03:30):
Hair raising.
>> Katie (03:31):
Yeah. Actually, especially now.
>> Zach (03:33):
And after doing all that, she also became a professor at University
of Autonomous Mexico, or National
Autonomous University of Mexico. It's a. It's a. They need
to get a better name.
>> Katie (03:43):
Figure that out.
>> Zach (03:44):
Must sound better in Spanish.
>> Katie (03:45):
Yeah. Yeah, I hope so, because otherwise it's unam, and that
makes me think Vietnam. So maybe we need to, uh.
Or maybe unam. But that. That just makes me think of
Vietnam as well. Yeah, let's take that one back to the
drawing board.
>> Zach (03:57):
For her career, in 2000, she was appointed the Mexico
City's environmental minister by her,
the former mayor and former president, Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador. She oversaw the introduction of the
city's bus system. In 2006, she contributed to
the climate Change mitigation section of the
IPCC's fourth and fifth assessments
report. And the writers of the report were awarded a
(04:20):
Nobel Prize. I guess that's an accolade. Working on a project
together, I have
probably would have like a thousand, but it's something.
>> Katie (04:29):
Yeah, I don't have an IPCC award.
Works for me.
>> Zach (04:36):
Um.
>> Katie (04:36):
Um.
>> Zach (04:36):
She was elected mayor of Mexico city in, uh, July
2018, receiving 50% of the vote
in a field of seven candidates, which is quite impressive.
>> Katie (04:45):
Really big. Yeah.
>> Zach (04:46):
Her government expanded rainwater collection,
reformed waste management, began a reforestation
program, announced, uh, plans to overall the city subway
system, and had massive investments
in modernizing trains and shoring up existing infrastructure.
And introduced the capital's first metrobus rapid
transit system. Then expanded it and added
electrical lines to reduce the pollution that was
(05:09):
being caused. And in 2023, she stepped down
as Mexico City mayor to seek A run for
presidency as a candidate for Moreno, which is the party
that Lopez Obrador founded. Um, she's the ideological
successor to Lopez Obrador. They are very much been in line
and she, he's been grooming her to step up and
take a larger role after you step down. Which,
(05:30):
considering how popular it was, I was questioning if he would walk away. But it's
a big thing for a guy, for a person with that
much power to step away when they're that popular.
>> Katie (05:37):
I have to say, I feel like that's definitely a testament of
character.
>> Zach (05:41):
Yeah. But she is, she does have some major differences from
Lopez Obrador. He was very big into oil and
trying to increase, uh, the oil output in Mexico.
Wasn't very concerned with the climate. Whereas Claudia,
Claudia Scheinbaum is much more focused on, um,
the environment with her IPCC credentials and
pushing for mass transit and getting away
(06:01):
from polluting fossil fuels and subsidizing renewable
energy. She has promised to boost renewable energy investment
by, um, $13.57
billion. So she's a new
trajectory for Mexico, but the same has
the, some of the same popular populist
tendencies. So it'll be interesting to see where she leaves
Mexico, whether she goes more environmentally focused or
(06:23):
if she's able to stay that road or if balancing the economy
is going to be more difficult, especially with the on again,
off again tariffs that she can't predict.
>> Katie (06:31):
Yeah, I mean, I feel a little bit better knowing what I
do about everything that's been going on with
Canada and the U.S. obviously
with our environmental policies. So knowing that at
least somebody in one of the three North American
countries cares about the environment makes
me feel, hey, you know what? We'll take one out of three better
than none out of three. So.
>> Zach (06:53):
Yeah, well, going to be a heavy burden to steer because
Mexico is currently the 11th largest
oil producer in the world,
extracting. Yeah, extracting 1.6 billion
barrels of crude oil a day in 2022.
>> Katie (07:06):
Oh, my gravy. Okay. Yeah, we're, we're in the
major leagues now. Okay.
>> Zach (07:10):
Yeah. Also among the largest natural gas importers in the
world. Probably a lot from the US Lopez, uh,
Obrador is heavily committed to growing the oil sector.
And that is not the way that Claudia
Sheinbaum wants to go.
>> Katie (07:22):
Oh, thank goodness for that.
>> Zach (07:24):
We'll have to see how she's weighing that. During her campaign, she committed to
generating 45% of Mexico's electricity from
renewable resources by 2030, which is,
it's a big step, especially considering they're at
24% right now.
>> Katie (07:37):
Yeah, that's big going.
>> Zach (07:38):
Go bold or go home.
>> Katie (07:39):
You know hell better than America. I feel like we bumped the
new goal by 2% or five years every
two years.
>> Zach (07:46):
So they're like, what happens? A 1% improvement in a year.
>> Katie (07:49):
I know, I know. At first it was 1 degree Celsius, now it's
1.5 degrees. And then it was, well, we'll get it by 20. Then it
was, well, we'll get it by 2030. Now it's 2050.
So let's hope we get it before 2100.
>> Zach (08:00):
Keep those goal posts right.
>> Katie (08:02):
Yeah. Never let them know your next move.
>> Zach (08:03):
Shine bomb. She's really committed to evs, and she, uh,
wants Mexico to produce its own EV called the
Olinea, which is supposed to be a car that's $25,000 and
compete with regular ICE vehicles in Mexico.
>> Katie (08:15):
I'd drive it. Yeah.
>> Zach (08:17):
I'd be interested to see the specs, see how that's a pretty affordable car
for a new car and.
>> Katie (08:21):
For sure. Yeah.
>> Zach (08:22):
Just got to see how good that range is because that's usually
the tricky part with these cheap EVs.
>> Katie (08:27):
One particular Muskrat who, uh, is
writhing at the prospect of a competitive.
>> Zach (08:33):
Oh, yeah, uh, she's planning to continue
expanding passenger rail, and she will. She's
not going to overhaul AMLO's infrastructure projects. So
for those who don't know, Mexico has done a lot,
is working on some major rail projects. These are probably
very good things if you enjoy visiting Mexico and if you enjoy
efficient shipping. Correct. So
Mexico is built a, um, a
(08:55):
corridor around Cancun to
go and visit different, um,
Aztec and. Or different Mayan temples.
Mayas were in the Yucatan. Aztecs were in
Mexico City. So visiting different Mayan, uh,
temples and historical sites and basically just trying
to boost tourism throughout the larger Yucatan
region. For those who don't know, I have a fun.
>> Katie (09:17):
Fact, Zach. Fact. Zach, fact.
>> Zach (09:20):
So the word Aztec is made up. That
is a modern term. The people we call the
Aztecs call themselves the Mexicans, which
is where we get Mexico from.
>> Katie (09:31):
Interesting. I didn't know that.
>> Zach (09:32):
Yeah. Yeah. And Alexander von Humboldt
was the one who coined the term Aztec in 1810
as a collective term applied to people linked to the
trade, custom, religion and language. The M. Mexica
States and the Triple alliance, which is all based around
Mexico City.
>> Katie (09:48):
Wonder where that, like, what was. Like, why that word I
wonder, like, what, like does that.
>> Zach (09:53):
My understanding was this. They just needed something different because they were like,
we can't call them Mexicans because there's Mexicans
today.
>> Katie (09:59):
So it was like their version of like when they would say
oriental, which is no longer, um,
the correct word. How interesting. Oh
my gosh. They came up with like their version
of Hispanic. What the heck? My
gosh.
>> Zach (10:15):
Yeah. Gotta differentiate in history.
>> Katie (10:18):
Well that, what a fun Zach fact. Thank you
for that. Wow.
>> Zach (10:22):
Hope you enjoyed that.
>> Katie (10:23):
I did, thank you.
>> Zach (10:26):
So shinebomb is also planning to, uh, continue
the rail project called the Isthmus
of I'm gonna slaughter this Tehuatepec, uh,
interoceanic corridor. That was definitely the
wrong pronunciation, but I don't know how to say that.
>> Katie (10:40):
Hey, that's way better than I'd have done. So that
sounds good to me, sounding like a native speaker, in my
opinion.
>> Zach (10:47):
And, uh, this is supposed to be a rail line to supplement the
Panama Canal. It's going to cost an estimated
$2.8 billion, which is, you know, engineer estimates
never really hold. It's going to be a 188 mile
corridor connecting the Pacific and, and the
Gulf of America, Mexico, I don't know, whatever you want
to call that place.
There'll,
(11:08):
um, be able to handle 1.4 million
20 foot equivalent units annually by
2033. For reference, the Panama
Canal currently handles 8 million TEUs
annually. So it'll be, it's not going to be able to replace the
Panama Canal, but it'll be a nice supplement. And you know
those testy, uh, supply chains, you always
want to improve those and get those moving a little faster. So always
(11:31):
appreciate extra infrastructure.
>> Katie (11:32):
Yeah, I know nothing about numbers, but I do know those are some big numbers.
Let's go big numbers.
>> Zach (11:36):
Mexico is currently grappling with a severe drought
that began in 2011 and has been getting worse and
worse. A lot of scientists blame climate change and
up to 71% of the national territory
has high or very high water stress. So that's part
of the reason Kilodi shine bombs and focus on, um, water
resilience and improving water infrastructure. Between
(11:56):
2001 and 2022, an annual average of
208,000 hectares of forest vegetation was
lost nationwide. And Mexico's economy is the
12th largest in the world, uh, by GP, and the
second largest in Latin America. I believe that's
following Brazil.
>> Katie (12:12):
That would make sense.
>> Zach (12:13):
So Mexico is a critical component
of the North South America
trade and it could be a unifi.
Unifier, uh, in Atlantic Pacific trade across
the, uh, regions and connecting the east coast of the US to
the west coast of the US which would be very beneficial, especially
with the fears of China taking over the Panama Canal. Even
(12:34):
though Trump seems to have, uh, scared them straight.
>> Katie (12:36):
Yeah, he. He whipped out his favorite little T word,
and it was all quiet on
the. What eastern front? I have no idea. It doesn't
matter.
>> Zach (12:45):
Southern front.
>> Katie (12:46):
Yeah. Yeah. Which. Yeah. Which front is it now? All of
them. On all the fronts.
>> Zach (12:50):
Done.
>> Katie (12:51):
Do we have enemies on. Is there anywhere where we don't have
enemies? Is there a front where there's not a problem?
No. Okay.
>> Zach (12:57):
All right. Um, trade with Mexico. Mexico
was United States top trading partner in 2024 with
$840 billion in trade.
>> Katie (13:05):
Are, ah, you serious?
>> Zach (13:07):
Yeah, they're a major trade
partner. And in 2023, they're 807
billion. So it's increasing currently. Canada totaled
782 billion, while trade with China
totaled 576 billion.
>> Katie (13:19):
Okay, now, whoa, whoa. Okay. So if
you'd have asked me, like, at any given time
in any given year, who I thought traded the
most with the US it would have been China.
>> Zach (13:30):
Tariffs are effective at making people not want to
buy stuff from that country and making you not want to import
stuff. So they do work. It is effective.
But we are now tariffing our two largest trading
partners who are our neighbors and are, uh,
very interconnected with our entire
economic system.
>> Katie (13:48):
Zach, I really feel like you just sprung a trap on me, because
with that exclamation, I think I proved the entire
crux of your whole episode. Wow. That is
like. That's. Wow. I'm honestly
speechless. That's. Wow. Okay, well, thanks for
listening to Green Tea Party Radio. If you want to hear our show on your college
radio station. Uh, yeah, no, that is. That's like,
genuinely crazy. That is.
>> Zach (14:10):
Yeah.
>> Katie (14:10):
And that makes me wonder, like, you. And I'm sure you'll get into
it here in a minute, but, uh, if we had that impact with
China, and
if I assume it would have this impact with Mexico and
Canada, then would we just not get those goods? Or
is there, like, a dark horse or a fourth country
that would eek its way
(14:31):
into the top three somehow if these two get pushed
down. Anywho, I'm not going to go into that. That's a little speculative.
I'll let you take this episode where.
>> Zach (14:38):
You lot of trade policy. We could probably do a whole trade policy
and tariff episode, discuss how that will impact the
US And a crystal.
>> Katie (14:46):
Ball episode where we make our crazy economic
prediction.
>> Zach (14:49):
So Mexico's a critical trade partner, and there are
times that products will cross the border
seven times between US, Mexico and
Canadian borders, especially for vehicles
where, like engine parts, car seats, they all go through
different steps along the process with different companies specializing in
different tasks. So that's part of the way that global trade
works, is that you'll have factories that specialize
(15:12):
in one very critical thing, and then that
product will just travel numerous times or stuff will be shipped
across borders to get a complete
product.
>> Katie (15:21):
Wow, that is crazy.
>> Zach (15:22):
So Trump has demanded drug and immigration
issues must face, uh, be handled or they will face.
Or Mexico will face steep tariffs which would
significantly damage Mexico's economy due to the high
interconnection of our two economies and how much more reliant they are
on us than we are on them. So it's a very
imbalanced partnership, and Trump views
that as a negative because we have a trade
(15:44):
imbalance with them. But that's a very
win, winner take all kind of look on things where
it's. Whereas I always take the view of
capitalism of a good economy, good
fortune, good tides, raise all boats. There
doesn't have to be a loser. You can be two winners. Yeah.
>> Katie (16:02):
And, and I don't know. Well, and I think for me, as, as
I hear that, what concerns me more is
that it's a criminal justice major. I hate saying
shit like that, but I mean, Trump has this,
this idea that because he said, hey, Mexico, you
guys have a drug and an immigration problem and a
crime problem, that Mexico's gonna go. We did. Oh, my God. Thank
(16:23):
you for pointing that out, President Trump. We are going to address that.
Right. No idea that
this was at all a problem until you mentioned something
about a tariff. This is, uh, thank you, sir. So, like, I
don't know what he thinks would have changed to
equip Mexico to fix
the issue, assuming that this is an issue they'd want
(16:43):
to fix all along in the first place. So, I mean,
you've got the issue of if they're even going to be
at a greater economic disadvantage. I really don't know how they
could fix this problem in the first place. And then you've also
got the issue of, well, if these problems exist because the
entire government and criminal justice system in
Mexico is corrupt, then you're just preaching to the choir
(17:03):
at that point. Like, the people who have the ability to change it
know that there's a problem and don't care. So I don't really know,
like, what that looks like in Mexican
diplomacy to Trump to fix it, because they
haven't.
>> Zach (17:15):
Yeah. In a country where political candidates get offed
consistently.
>> Katie (17:18):
Yeah.
>> Zach (17:19):
Like it's hard to take a stand. And
it's a difficult question. There is no known right answer
to solving this. Although I do think legalizing marijuana and
taking that away as an income source, maybe having some
stricter ability to track the guns that are crossing
the border and reduce that would help.
But they're, they are very armed and very
(17:39):
dangerous cartels down there. It is. Is it worth
designating them as terrorists and kicking a horn's nest and
causing international crisis by doing strikes
in Mexico, as some
proponents have proposed? I think that's a little crazy,
but crazier things have happened.
>> Katie (17:55):
Yeah. And I would probably think it was less crazy if they weren't our
next door neighbor. Um, because it's one thing to fire a rocket at somebody on
the other side of the world. It's another thing to fire a rocket at a
guy who could feasibly drive up to where I'm at in a day.
So, I mean, there's that first and foremost.
But I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know. I don't know
what that would look like. And I mean, I'm of the opinion, and, uh, I don't know that this
(18:15):
is a conservative opinion. I don't know whether or not you.
I don't know what political alignment this opinion is.
I'm of the opinion that a good
portion of drugs should probably be legalized and
then regulated and taxed.
>> Zach (18:30):
Uh, libertarian opinion. Except for the tax. Yeah.
>> Katie (18:32):
Okay. Yeah. There, there. Lo and behold, ladies and
gentlemen, Katie found a new political party right in the middle of Green
Tea Party Radio. Sorry for future production issues,
but, but yeah, no, I guess that that would be the libertarian
opinion, but really I think that it would take a
decriminalization and then a regulation and a
taxation of drugs to cause that
issue to begin to go. To even begin to go
(18:54):
away, to.
>> Zach (18:56):
Take away their income streams and reduce their
reliance on cartels. I think another.
>> Katie (19:01):
Yeah, and I mean, and I would want to do that before we start
nuking them. Um, but as you were saying. Sorry.
>> Zach (19:06):
I also believe in the, um, economic theory of a rising
tide raises all votes. And I believe my
dream would be that our two neighbors would be two,
the second and third largest economies in the world. And
people wouldn't need to immigrate here. People wouldn't need to join the
cartels because the economy works
down there and there's jobs that they can get out of high
school, out of college, that there's factories there that they can go work
(19:29):
in. And work with our, uh, with America and
producing products that can be then exported to the rest of the world.
I think we need to be working as partners, not
antagonizing them and treating them as enemies.
>> Katie (19:39):
So I'm probably about to reveal my
Western privilege here and demonstrate just how
uneducated I am as an American. But I
feel like. And this is something that maybe just nobody has ever
bothered to do, I feel like you hear a lot about the
model Arab League or, uh, well, uh, wow, did
I just show my hand as to which group I was in in college? I
(19:59):
feel like you hear a lot about the Arab League and the United
nations and the European Union, but you
really don't hear a lot about, like,
a North American alliance where Canada and Mexico
and the United States, like, frequently meet and work with each
other to strategize economic
diplomacy. And I don't know why the number one nation in
the world would not want to talk to its northern and
(20:22):
southern neighbors to figure out how to become even
stronger. I mean, I just feel like we're so
invested in what, like, groups of countries in the
Middle east and in Africa and in Europe are
doing that we completely forget that we are technically in our
own group of countries.
>> Zach (20:37):
Yeah. So there was an initiative at some point
in South America to
have a union of South American nations, and
they're trying to work together. But
it's. A lot of. A lot of countries are very
independent down there. A lot of countries have very differing political
views. And with North America, it really is
(20:57):
just. The US Just doesn't really care
for the opinions of other countries. And
we. They're like, we dictate to you. We don't want to really hear
your opinions. But I feel like we could maintain
a more beneficial relationship by working together.
>> Katie (21:12):
I feel like. I feel like, in America's
mind, Canada is your annoying
millennial uncle.
He's, like, kind of cringy, but super polite.
And then Mexico is the little brother that
your mom forced you to take to the playground with you.
And so I, like. I genuinely feel like that is what the United
States thinks about Canada and Mexico. They're like, I don't want to be here with
(21:33):
either of these people. Um, and it's just easier for me to
ignore them at the Thanksgiving table to try to engage with them.
And I feel like if we're going to engage with them at all, this is not the
way to go about it. I don't think these tariffs are in it.
>> Zach (21:44):
Yeah. Yeah. And I think one thing Trump has
effectively done is instituted a state of fear
in, in our neighbors, which I don't think is a good
thing. But it has reduced immigration encounters
by 70 to 80%, which I guess will
happen when people are, when you're threatening to send people across the
border to a mass, ah, prisons in El Salvador that don't
have any, uh, due process. So there's, There
(22:07):
is this. He's reduced immigration. It is
cruel, but it is working. But that's
also is reduce immigration. The end all, be
all. Should we be working on reducing legal immigration
and open up pathways to legal immigration? I would love
to have a policy of allowing immigrants who
want to come and work in construction, building more houses and upping
that supply, giving them some kind of visa for
(22:30):
work.
>> Katie (22:30):
Well, and I mean, I feel like this is something that a lot of
Republicans have neglected to talk about. I would even say a
lot of conservatives, to be fair. Um, and it's one of my favorite
Reagan clips of all time. And maybe I'm a little biased in saying that
because I'm, what, third,
fourth generation Polish immigrant, literally 50%
Polish. But there's this incredible Reagan clip
(22:51):
where he's explaining that, like, you can go to Germany, but you're not
a German. You can go to Russia, but you're not a Russian. You can
go to Canada, but you're not a Canadian. But if you come to the
United States, you can be an American. And this
whole country is founded on the principle of
going somewhere in search of the best life imaginable, if
you choose to build it for yourself.
>> Zach (23:10):
Manifest destiny.
>> Katie (23:12):
I mean, look, that's what some folks call it. But I really
do think that America up until maybe like
20 years ago was the place where you went if
you wanted to live the best life in the world. And to be honest, like, you
can still live a really, really good life here, obviously. But,
uh, I mean, we can get into specifics. We don't have the time on
a show like this. But I feel like to suddenly
(23:32):
say that people who are not
like the cartel, okay, sure, they broke the law
by coming here, but they go to work every day, they
go to church, they send their kids to school, they pay their
taxes, they file their working visa, whatever,
to send those people home to a place that you know is not as
good as us without even giving them the
opportunity to like, okay, do you, do you want to be deported or do you want to
(23:55):
stay here? Well, if you want to stay here, you have to become a citizen. Do you want to become a
citizen or do you want to get deported. Like, to me, that would have made the most
sense to be like, okay, we'll run a background check or whatever.
If you're not the cartel, here's your driver's
license, go to work like that. That would have made so
much more sense to me than let's storm
every church in middle school because we don't like the
(24:15):
cartel. Well, I don't think the cartel is sitting in third
grade. I don't. I really
don't. So, I mean, whatever, maybe that's a based
take as a conservative, but I just feel like there
are better ways from a, uh, patriotic
standpoint that this could have been handled and even from an economic
standpoint that this could have been handled because now we're starting to see the
(24:36):
economic repercussions, especially here in Arkansas. I mean, this
is like not even an environmental discussion necessarily
anymore. This is just a whole separate tangent. I guess economic
griping is in the vein of this show, but, I mean, there's a lot of
services and companies here that are shutting down or that you can't get now,
and definitely not for the price that you got before because they were
predominantly done by immigrants. Um, and I don't know if
you've noticed or not, but shit's really expensive already as it
(24:59):
is, and it already takes a long time to get, and now we've made that
even harder. So I don't know how a party that
prides itself on being economically savvy or on being
pro life or being patriotic or
upholding human dignity could do any of the things that it's
done since November and probably even before
then, to be honest and consider itself like the party of the
(25:19):
people. Like, get a grip.
>> Zach (25:20):
Yeah, well, since you brought up economics, I want to discuss some of
the.
Let's talk about them, some of the economics of these tariffs.
So last I checked, this could be very different
from when this episode is airing. And I was about to say, yeah.
>> Katie (25:32):
It might be different.
>> Zach (25:33):
I hold no, this number could very well change.
The Trump was planning on imposing 25% tariffs, import
tariffs on Cana, Canada and Mexico. Last year,
the United States imported $79 billion worth
of cars and light trucks from Mexico. So that's going to
be an immediate impact. We also imported another
81 billion auto, uh, parts from Mexico. And
(25:54):
according to TD Economics, the
average price of car could rise by as much as
$3,000.
>> Katie (26:01):
Oh, my God.
>> Zach (26:02):
Car's already really expensive for no reason. And now they're going
to go up another $3,000 and become,
I mean, Even more unaffordable than they already are.
>> Katie (26:10):
Do you think Elon Musk is going to cut the price of the Tesla to
compete with the inflated prices of other
cars as a result of the tariffs?
>> Zach (26:18):
Elon Musk is doing nothing to help
the average American.
>> Katie (26:22):
Now I feel like the gif of when he's, like, smoking weed on the Joe
Rogan show and he's like, my brain exploded.
Like, I just practice plot right here on
Green Tea Party radio.
>> Zach (26:32):
Yeah. And with inflation, the US also
bought more than $49 billion in agricultural products
from Mexico.
>> Katie (26:39):
That's crazy.
>> Zach (26:36):
47%
of all imported vegetables and 40% of all fruits
were from Mexico. Where are we going to get our avocado
toast? That's going to be another, like, $7. Maybe the boomers are
right. That's the key to getting a, uh, down payment for a house is
skipping the avocado toast.
>> Katie (26:54):
Yeah. If you want to afford this $3,000 price hike
on a new car, you got to quit the avocado toast. See,
Zach, the government is helping us, and we just
didn't know it yet. We just had to have a silver
lining. The government is helping us afford new, inflated
car prices by getting rid of our avocado toast.
Yeah.
>> Zach (27:12):
And on a more environmental note, since we are an environmental
show, mainly, but since we're diverging today,
this is basically going to force supply chains
to move away from the U.S. we were having a
huge resurgence in supply chains, moving to
Mexico, South America, and coming back towards
our section of the world and moving away from Asia.
(27:34):
But this is punishing those people who made those
moves to become more stable and more secure
in North America. And it's going to make shipping costs
go up. It's going to make us increase pollution from shipping.
I just don't see the sense in hurting two neighbors,
that they're not perfect, but there are
neighbors, and they're not going anywhere unless we really do
(27:54):
invade fricking Canada for some reason.
This is. These are our neighbors for the long term. And it's
important to have good working relationships and good
economic policy with them. Hope that we all
develop together.
>> Katie (28:06):
Oh, my God. Give my dog just a second to finish. Having a, uh,
stroke because somebody delivered food to us. My
God. You will depose
God. Um, yeah.
So how do you feel about our first and 52nd state,
Zach? Um, do you think that would. Do you
think. You know, because I know he joked about that, but, like, at the same
time, what would be the point of the tariffs then?
(28:28):
Like, if I was Mexico I'd be like, you know what? We sign up to be the
51st.
>> Zach (28:32):
State, then cuts off some issues.
>> Katie (28:34):
We, uh, would like to be in American territory now and we would like those
tariffs to go away. Thank you.
>> Zach (28:39):
What's really funny is America doesn't
want those headaches. We don't want no
Canada.
>> Katie (28:45):
That would just, we, we can't deal with the we've got
going on right now, much less everybody else's
problems.
>> Zach (28:52):
Yeah. And are we going to hold up their
very socialist health care and socialist tax policy,
or are we going to Americanize them? If we're invading, are we going
to deal with hunting down rebel Canadians in the
deep Arctic Canada tundra? What are we
doing?
>> Katie (29:07):
Imagine moving to Canada because you hate Trump and then
Trump annexes Canada. I'd be so mad.
Like, no, I didn't vote for this. My God.
>> Zach (29:16):
So I think it's important. I think Trump is taking a
geopolitical and economic misstep with these
tariffs. I think he's hurting two important allies of the
US And I worry about the long term
effects that this will have even after his
presidency of our relations with our
allies.
>> Katie (29:32):
Yeah, I don't know that, that there's anybody I
can think of who would be eligible to run within
the next decade who could fix a
colossal goof of this nature. Here's,
here's the part that, like, bothers me and obviously I
won't get too far in depth because we're towards the end of the show
here, but the decisions that Trump is making right
(29:53):
now have ramifications far beyond the next four
years. And I mean, sure, you could probably make that argument with any
president, but I feel like it's really hard to
rebuild entire departments and sectors
in a, uh, four to eight year period. Obviously, we know it's
pretty easy to nuke them in a short amount of time, but
I don't know the decisions that are being made
(30:14):
can be. I don't even know that the presidency
will carry the weight that it used to carry before, because
I don't know that it would be up to a president at that point to
get done what they need to do in a certain amount of time without just
issuing executive orders. And at that point, why even be a
democracy?
>> Zach (30:29):
Yeah, I mean, we should also do a full deep
dive of the ineptitude of Congress and just the
ceding of every power that Congress has
over the past, I don't know,
continuously for the past, like twenty hundred years. They're
just, Congress is like, wow, we don't want to do our job President,
you just do everything. And we'll sort of just
(30:49):
check it off and be like, yeah, it works.
>> Katie (30:51):
Yeah. And we'll, we'll take the W. If it's good, we'll take the elephants
bad.
>> Zach (30:54):
Yeah. And if it's against us, we'll be like, oh, you're the worst thing ever. And
if you're for us, if you're doing it for us, we'll be like, yeah, you're the best
ever.
>> Katie (31:00):
Yeah. If it goes badly, the other party did it.
>> Zach (31:03):
So hopefully Trump will find a. Hopefully
Trump's policies will start making sense
soon.
>> Katie (31:10):
Or concepts have a plan.
>> Zach (31:13):
Someone will talk to him, um, and explain
how hurting our two closest allies
and breaking alliances with our neighbors across the
pond and everything will is not great
for economics or strategic global
strategy.
>> Katie (31:28):
Long term, somebody could hand the President their 9th grade
economics textbook. That would be fabulous.
>> Zach (31:34):
All right, well, that's all I got for today. Let's get to our
closing.
>> Katie (31:38):
Sounds great to me. For you, our listener. Email us
with your thoughts. Our email is
infoeenteapartyradio.com thank you
for.
>> Zach (31:46):
Listening to Green Tea Party Radio. And a very special thank you
to all of our patrons. We couldn't do this without you. If you're interested in
getting early access to Episodes as well as Green Tea Party Radio
Merc, check us out@greentpartyradio.com
for feedback. Tell us what's on your mind and follow us on Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
>> Katie (32:02):
And just so you know, this is our passion project. We don't have any
organizational sponsor. Just a reminder that Green Tea
Party Radio is not representative of the Diocese of Little
Rock, Catholic Climate Covenant, NASA, or any of our
employers. We are building a movement because we want the world to
know that conservatives, particularly young ones like us,
have important things to say about climate change.
>> Zach (32:22):
If you want to hear our show on your college radio station, email
us@infoeentheardradio.com and give us the
details about your campus and your radio station. That email again is
infoeentheartradio.com
thanks for listening.
>> Katie (32:34):
Thank you for listening.
I just realized we forgot action steps. Okay, here's your
action step. File your taxes or don't. It clearly
doesn't matter anymore. Who cares whether you
pay your taxes or not? That's my official endorsement as
the conservative libertarian on this show.
Tell you what, Zach. We had such bad winds the other day that it
blew down a street sign on my street that I like. I took it home. You
(32:55):
know why? Because I paid taxes. It belongs to me anyway.
It's mine. Pay your taxes. Don't. Who
cares? There is a good chance they're not going to be used for the
you want them to be used for anyway. Steel street signs. That's
it. That's your extra steps for today.
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