Mailbucket #16: Closing Time

Also: More about South Africa and “genocide”

Some of the emails you great people send make us laugh (cute new-baby pics!). Some of them make us cry (cute new-baby pics!). We read all of ‘em; the shorter ones sometimes on Members Only episodes (including any minute now, I swear!). Longer ones that add particular value we periodically collect in this space, with some light editing/linking/responding. This batch starts with a bummer.

From: Wilson

Subject: The End of the End … or the Long Arm of Episode #502

Date: July 23, 2025

Gentlemen,

Third time writer (see Mailbucket #14), long time listener who still can’t figure out his paid status.

I would like to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to explain how tariffs have affected our business as a forest-products export manufacturer. As stated, Liberation Day liberated me from the values of my retirement funds, and now my business. On July 21, 2025, we sawed our last log. A venture started in 1987 has ended. We enter the final wind-down phase of processing our remaining products and attempting to sell the remaining inventory. Layoffs will ensue shortly, and one of the largest private employers in one of the poorest counties in North Carolina will cease to exist.

Our closure is based on many different factors, including raw materials, market changes, personnel issues, capital needed for upgrades, aged employees, and an old fucking owner (who would be me). Donald Trump’s tariffs proved to be the final nail. Each of these factors would generate a 750-word essay, with the old owner’s issues requiring maybe 70,000.

My point is, it’s a multicausal problem with a monocausal result -- the closure of our little facility and the loss of 50 families’ livelihoods. My complaint is that in this world of soundbites, everyone thinks multicausal problems are fixed with monocausal solutions. That’s just fucked up. No trade deal, no economic policy, no government program fixes any problem; it just exacerbates the fuckery.

As stated, tariff policy was the final nail for us. We pivoted to other species and other countries. We shifted from a profitable niche in China, to Vietnam, to the Middle East, and the Subcontinent. We pivoted to Brazil with product, only to have a fucking tariff scare potential customers away. With every turn we have been thwarted by our wonderful, insightful, provocative trade policies designed to bring back sewing plants, shoe manufacturers and damned iPhones that will never be made again (or even built for the first time) in the United States. Here we are, an old-school, hot, sweaty, manufacturer that exported 90% of our products, forced out of business by many factors, mostly which are trade policies.

Yes, I am angry and bitter.

I am frustrated by the blind fealty to the mantra of MAGA. I am frustrated by the pivot of progressive ideologues on the left. They only care about the big picture, and the soundbite of the moment, and the likes and re-tweets. It’s a world about them and not about us. Everyone has forgotten rural America -- the small miners, fishermen, family farmers, and the fractured forest-products industry.

The American hardwood industry is being decimated. It is an industry dominated by family-owned mills. I cannot think of a single publicly traded concern in our segment. This crap has hit us all, from the little guy to the largest producer in the U.S. Everyone is downsizing, seeking new markets, and trying to pivot. We are executing action plans that we had laying around for DEFCON 1. And now DEFCON 1 is truly here. We are not the first to fall. We won’t be the last. While our closure most likely would be inevitable, it was hastened -- by orders of magnitude -- by tariffs.

I wish I could express how it felt to look my co-workers in the eyes and tell them we were having to close after a 38-year run. I wish I could describe the dismay in my guys. I wish I could express the angst in the dreams that I have, explaining to my father that we failed and closed. I used to have nightmares of falling down the steps, or showing up for an exam nude and unprepared. Now I am telling my Dad we’re closing the mill. I’d give anything to be dreaming of falling down the steps, nude, going to an exam unprepared.

I have rambled too long. I could go on and on, but discretion is truly the better part of valor.

Again, thanks to you all for the work you do and the thoughtful analysis and perspective. Should you make a Never Fly Coach, Always First Class level, I will be the first to join. Thank you for publishing my previous email. I am so grateful to be heard.

Kindest regards,

Wilson

P.S.: Also I forgot to include the video and photo of our last log:

(Well, Wilson, this is perfectly heartbreaking, and not a small amount infuriating. Anyone fortunate enough to have birthed and/or stewarded an actual going concern, one with customers, and tangible good products, and employees & the extended families thereof, knows the bewildering chasm of loss when it all goes away.

That wound cannot soon be healed, but: Do not sleep on those 38 years! That is a long, productive, beautiful, lives-altering span of time. And at 14,000 days, you only need five words per to fill up your Issues-With-the-63-Year-Old treatise. Most things never start; most things that start don’t last long, and never rise to the level of helping lift a whole-ass community. The pride is real, and richly deserved. As is your impending post-log Lost Year. Come say hi when the tour takes you to NYC! Also, here’s a Beck song:)

***

From: Sean F.

Subject: Those Damn Refugees

Date: May 31, 2025

Hi Gents,

Long time paying subscriber writing to you from my home in Singapore, though I am South African. Thanks for the show. I always enjoy listening to your insights (even when they veer towards being drunkenly deranged), and my apologies, this email turned into a long one.

I'm a bit behind, so this is old news now, but I was listening to Episode #506 about the South African "genocide," and wanted to offer some context that seemed missing from your conversation.

Firstly, while it's obviously true that calling the violence towards white farmers in the country a genocide is grossly inaccurate, it's worth noticing that there is an element of extra cruelty when it comes to the murder of these farmers that is generally lacking in other murders in the country. The murders of this specific demographic are usually accompanied by extreme torture. And while correlation and causation are murky to connect, I think it's not a far stretch to say that the reason for these instances of torture is that amongst some of the poverty-stricken black populace there is a unique, and very, very deep hatred aimed towards whites in general and Afrikaners in particular, and these poor people are the ones committing the violence. This is understandable given the history of Apartheid, and the fact that most white farmers are Afrikaners, which makes them easy targets. The situation isn't helped, though, by the ANC's rampant corruption and general incompetence at creating an environment that promotes prosperity; i.e., a country where the historically disenfranchised have easy access to quality education, housing, healthcare, and working infrastructure.

This is where the threat of Julius Malema comes in. While he leads a very small party, his party is often in a position to be the swing decider in a parliament that requires party coalitions to maintain a majority. Because of this, he has disproportionate power. Fortunately thus far, the top two parties (the ANC and the DA) have been able to muddle through cooperatively, but that can't be counted on indefinitely. There are people within the ANC who hate the Afrikaners and would prefer to partner with the EFF instead of the DA (which is seen by some as the white people's party), as they view partnering with the DA as an ANC betrayal of black voters. So unfortunately, Julius Malema and his rhetoric can't simply be written off as not being a threat.

When it comes to the land stats, the numbers you cited in the episode are misleading. While it's true that whites own about 70% of all privately owned land, that stat doesn't take into account government-owned land and tribal trusts like the Zulu nation's Ingonyama trust. If you factor these in, then the "white-owned" land drops to about 30%.

When it comes to government expropriation of land, the issue is that historically whenever they expropriate land and let black communities use that land, they refuse to give them title deeds, and so these "beneficiaries" actually get screwed over because they aren't able to use the land as collateral for development loans. This ultimately leads to a lot of newly "black-owned" farms failing and falling fallow.

It's a poor governance strategy that damages more than it fixes, and is a perfect illustration of the problem with communism-inspired policies. The government will ultimately always care more about its own power than the people's well-being.

Lastly, I think the land question is a bit of a red herring anyway when it comes to economic prosperity. Singapore is a good illustration of this. They have no land and have managed to build an economy with a GDP higher than South Africa's despite having a population a tenth the size. Ensuring one's country has a highly educated, fully employed, securely housed population allows that country to be innovative and seize opportunities for growth, in a way that merely ensuring that everyone has a parcel of land to grow their own vegetables while staying poor does not.

And I just want to say thanks to Kmele for your soliloquy humanizing people who more often than not are good people who are unfairly vilified because they were born into the situation that they were born into, but they just so happen to have the wrong skin color and speak the wrong language (according to some). As an Afrikaner, I have seldom in my life heard non-South Africans speak in defense of the humanity of Afrikaners. Thank you.

Keep up the good work gents.

(This is the Platonic ideal of a Mailbucket missive – sharing testimonial evidence that exceeds the podcast’s own understanding of an issue. Thank you for it!)

***

From: Jack G.

Subject: Slouching Toward Neverland

Date: July 20, 2025

Long one -- sorry not sorry.

Gents,

Coming to you from the roof of my summer house on the Spanish coast. I was slumming it with the peasants on the most recent poor-people episode, and you touched on two topics that overlap recent conversations I’ve had here: the disappearing of George Retes by ICE in my home state of California, and tourist-haters. Spanish hate for tourists is isolated in the shittiest province, Catalonia, where tourism is like 40% of their do-nothing GDP. Fuck ‘em. They do kind of have a point, though: Americans here are the worst.

The expats I know here in Valencia (the best province; hon. mention Basque Country) are the some of the most obnoxious people politically that I have ever encountered. The kind of people who will espouse the virtues of "European culture" while ignoring that anyone from here would stab you for lumping their cultures together, assuming knives were still legal. The kind of people who will bemoan ICE black-bagging U.S. veterans right after being stopped-and-frisked by a policeman with a rifle who did it for no reason other than that he can. The kind of people who say present day America "feels like 1939 Germany," but can't name one single goddamn thing that was happening in 1939 Germany. The kind of people who will indict the entire American project for *insert historical injustice* while living in FUCKING SPAIN, especially in a province where their 4th of July is a celebration of when they finished killing all the Muslims.

Every Californian I know wants to move to Spain because Spain has all the shit Californians constantly vote against (see: functioning government, rule of law). Every American who lives here is retired or unemployed, and has become so detached from reality they can't form congruent thoughts anymore. Recently at dinner with some Ukrainian refugees we know, one person said "I basically don't believe in borders" after revealing she's here illegally because she messed up her visa. "It's so interesting you're pro-Russia," I said, unable to contain my inner douchebag.

In spite of these insufferable examples, and stream of bad news coming out of the U.S., every Spaniard I meet has a dream of moving to California, though they would settle for any U.S. state.

This email is a cry for help. How, pray tell, can I remind these expats that America rules. Yah, it's kinda fucked up right now, but every indictment they have of the U.S. seems like the default state in Europe. Plus, even when America sucks it's still awesome. Europe is a place you go to vacation, not to live. Spain is wonderful, but it's even better because there's a U.S. embassy I can walk into if I don't want to deal with whatever shit is going on. I feel like the only adult in Neverland, and it's driving me crazy.

Appreciate you.

P.S.: Valencia, and Spain in general, is magical, and a great place to bring kids. Walking around town with my five kids I'm like a local hero -- all the old people stop and talk to me, ice cream is always >20% off, and the butcher hands me a cold one whenever I come in to buy sandwich meat. My 5-year-old wanders the town by herself, knows all the shopkeepers and local dogs, and the other day I caught her taking a cafe by herself and watching Spanish cable news with a group of old people (pic attached). Can't recommend it enough.

(Here are my three memories of Spain: 1) Spending roughly 44 straight hours awake and euphoric at the San Fermín festival three weeks before my 22^nd birthday; 2) witnessing an unspeakable pornographic world record in Barcelona circa 1997; and 3) flying with a bunch of friends to Madrid to usher in Y2K by watching our friends’ band play, only to have the bass player fall ill to food poisoning, requiring me to do some emergency replacement. Hence, Spain is a land of extremes….

As for your question: The older I get, the less interested I am in telling people that they’re wrong. This is both for reasons of humility and maybe a bemused sense of grace. I have a soft spot in my heart for the various mildly eccentric subgenres of American expat, including the grey-ponytailed self-hater. There are just so very many different ways of being in the world, ya know? What matters is the America in *your* heart. That, and yr awesome five-year-old just rocking the local lifestyle. Excellent natalizing, BTW.)

***

From: Graham M.

Subject: Adieu

Date: July 15, 2025

Hello Gents.

Day One UK subscriber here who has just cancelled his subscription, and feels like he owes you an explanation and an apology, as well as thanks for all the many hours of entertainment over the years. So I'm sorry, and please accept my thanks—knowing there were still voices like yours really did help me get through a cursed decade of global madness. I'll always be grateful.

As for explanation, I noticed I was taking longer to get round to listening to your episodes when a new one drops, took a little time to think, and came to the surprising conclusion that American things are no longer so relevant to us, and that there's something else happening here now. Hence from now on I should get back to thinking about Britain, hearing British voices, listening to things about Britain, etc. No slight on you guys—your output is as good as it ever was—it's just that something intangible has taken place, and times have moved on.

Anyway, that's just a finger in the wind, but I still thought it might be interesting. Of course, I'm only trying to work out whether there's a change in the air, and I might be wrong, and we will of course remain your imperial subjects. But it suddenly just feels different somehow, and I should act accordingly.

(Indeed it IS interesting, and thanks for sharing & listening/subscribing all these years.

I respect this take more than you might suspect. One of my ongoing annoyances with modern life is that far too many of us [myself very much included] use our precious time consuming and responding to politicized chatter about people and events far, far removed from the loci of where governmental/societal decisions and trends actually affect (and can be affected by) us. Watching the O.J. trial play out every day on the front pages of every newspaper in Budapest – a city not previously known for its NFL enthusiasms – was in this regard a perspective-rattling experience, which in different flavors is played out on Twitter and social media every damned day. A world obsessed with the goings on in Washington, D.C., is a world not dealing with its own shit.

The three of us care a good deal about what goes on beyond these shores, including in Ol’ Blighty, and will hopefully use this email as a reminder to keep diversifying the mix. And London is on our shortlist of first international live show, so don’t stray too far….)

***

From: Debbie

Subject: My Heroes!

Date: July 11, 2026

I have never written fan mail, but I feel obligated today. Years ago, on my way to the beach, I found you guys at the very beginning of your run, and have been hooked ever since and a subscriber since forever. I spend a lot of my time in the car between my house and my 96-year-old mom’s home. You have been there for me on the plane ride to close her home in Florida after she had a stroke and had to come home. On the way home from rehab after she fell and needed more care than we could provide at home. She is kind of nearing the end of her journey, and it has been tough for a lot of reasons too numerous and tedious to talk about.

But I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for what you do, for keeping me up-to-date because honestly, the news would just put me over the edge. For Michael’s impressions, especially the Rhode Island ones, except we do not all sound like that! For Matt’s insights into things that I would not have thought about. For the book recommendations, as I have been accused of only having books about WWII and history. Nice to know I am not the only one who loves the period! And, to your non-black co-host -- I love hearing about your children and your adventures.

Today, I was driving and crying until I hit play on your latest episode, and once again found myself laughing instead of crying. You guys are the best! Keep up the good work, and Michael the new pod is great; just don’t give up your “day job.” Thank you again

(Look, we weren’t gonna go out on an unsubscribe, were we? Thanks, Debbie, this gave us all a much-needed jolt the moment it landed in our in-boxes. We all know the elder-parental-fade much more than we let on in the podcast, so are doubly honored & grateful that we can help even a little. Here, let’s embed a McManus-Macca co-production:

Until next time! Keep filling up our ‘bucket!)