Navigating life after military service presents unique challenges, where the personal battle with ego often defines the road to success or failure. Join us for a deep dive into the mind of a Marine Corps veteran, where swagger meets strategic thought and where violence is not only redefined but understood as a tool for overcoming trauma and building resilience.
Check out the new DECKED system and get free shipping.
Navigating life after military service presents unique challenges, where the personal battle with ego often defines the road to success or failure. Join us for a deep dive into the mind of a Marine Corps veteran, where swagger meets strategic thought and where violence is not only redefined but understood as a tool for overcoming trauma and building resilience.
Check out the new DECKED system and get free shipping.
It started with the book Ego is the Enemy for Me and some personal things in life that were going on and harnessing your ego as a man, as a person, as a person just leaving the military it's very important. And then the idea came behind okay, what can I apply this to? I now have my ego under control, my mind under control. I don't want anything. I kind of spent the last few years releasing all of my wants in life and now. So that idea was to apply it to politics. Well, I don't want power, yeah. So what happens if I just fucking hold it for a little bit right, pass it on and continue my life? So that's kind of the overall idea behind running and wanting to be a representative.
Speaker 2:These are stories of outdoor adventure and expert advice from folks with calloused hands. I'm James Nash and this is the Six Ranch Podcast. This episode of the six ranch podcast is brought to you by decked. That's d-e-c-k-e-d.
Speaker 2:If you don't know what that is, decked is a drawer system that goes in the bed of a pickup truck or a van and it'll fit just about any American-made pickup truck or van. It's a flat surface on top and then underneath there are two drawers that slide out that you can put your gear in, and it's going to be completely weatherproof, so I've never had snow or rain or anything get in there. There's also a bunch of organizational features, like the deco line, and there's boxes that you can put rifles or bows or tools all different sizes. There's some bags and tool kits. There's a bunch of different stuff that you can put in there. But the biggest thing is you can take the stuff that's in your back seat out of your back seat and store it in the drawer system and it's secure.
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Speaker 1:So when people look at the word and they kind of glance over what it means, they look at it, they hear it and it's an automatic definition that's assigned to it. So with Redefine Violence, what we're trying to do is shed light, or shed new light, on the types of people that train in violence, train in violent arts, work in the violent professions and also have survived violent circumstances. So violence is all around us and it's one of those things that people don't realize how important it is to have a healthy intimacy with it. And that's kind of our biggest point as a company. We sell shirts and we sell merchandise, but it's more about getting that message out there.
Speaker 2:How do you define violence?
Speaker 1:I define it as a skill that's required by us as human beings to survive. You know early on, like yourself as a hunter, that's a violent art. That's something that you do to feed yourself, to sustain, but we've gotten so far removed from being comfortable with it in a healthy way that it's, I think, kind of detrimental to our society overall.
Speaker 2:I've heard it described well. Interpersonal violence I've heard described as the universal phobia, and it is something that we all have an aversion to, but occasionally it's going to happen to us regardless, right, right. And then you get into that obscure world of wondering whether you're in defense or offense and, as you know from the Marine Corps, there is no clear line between defense and offense. Right, tell me about you joining the Marines.
Speaker 1:So I was 17. I turned 17 September 2007, and I left to boot camp that January. So I did my whole boot camp, did my whole, SOI got to my battalion and I still wasn't even 18 years old. So I turned 18 in Bridgeport, on one of the humps.
Speaker 1:Oh, you did yeah so that was a cool experience for me. It's something that I knew I wanted to do since I was a child. You know, the Marine Corps was something for me that was so deep like inside of me that I felt it was almost planted in me and like, hey, this is what you have to do. So, yeah, man, this is one of the coolest things.
Speaker 2:I've ever done. A lot of marines have that, have that draw, like there's a magnetism to to a lot of people and it's like this is really the only, this is really the only option for me, right, and it's a common enough question that it gets asked to marines. It's like what? What led you to want to do this? Like why did you join the marine corps? And for a lot of people, the honest answer truly is it felt like it was the right thing to do, like there was, there was a draw to go and do that and there wasn't, seemingly, another option that would satisfy the feelings that people have. Where are we right now? What's going on you?
Speaker 1:know, I know people are hearing some, some trucks and some guns and stuff in the background so we're at a range day with, uh, sunset goons, a bunch of other companies that are together to support each other, get some good media, some good content and kind of promote each other. That's kind of what I've been noticing is everyone's really willing to promote each other, to work together, share that knowledge, which, as a small business owner, is invaluable. These are the things that take companies to the next step, the next level.
Speaker 2:So your company is Redefined Violence Right, we've got Sunset Goons Right, and would you describe them as an apparel company, lifestyle brand?
Speaker 1:Sunset Goons, yeah. Yeah, I'd describe them as kind of a lifestyle brand, yeah, and kind of give everybody a place to go Right, and that's what it is. You're welcome here.
Speaker 2:And you know it's got a strong military flavor to it and the first line you'll see on any of the sunset goon stuff is check on your homies. Yeah, and I love that, man. Uh, and it's not just suicide. That's where most people's minds go for something like that. But there's so many struggles before that that we really need to be checking up on on our friends and and just the people in our lives. I mean like, hey man, how you living?
Speaker 2:yeah uh, is there anything I can help you with? And yeah, that's. That's pretty cool that I find that very attractive about that brand. We've also got tier one kinetics out here there's. There are a bunch of different brands and I do think it's super cool that everybody's supporting each other instead of competing.
Speaker 1:Right there's there super cool that everybody's supporting each other instead of competing Right. There's enough for everybody.
Speaker 2:And to an extent, they are competitors. Exactly, yeah, yeah, but that's not what people are doing here.
Speaker 1:No, even though we sell similar products, it's about everybody getting to their goal, whatever it is together, so that's kind of unique. I will say that. I didn't expect that as a small business owner, I thought it was gonna be a lot more competition, but, you know, thankfully fell into the right crowd, with the right people who are willing to support everybody.
Speaker 2:So what infantry unit?
Speaker 1:were you with 3rd battalion, 5th Marines, so 3-5 dark horse. That was where I started my. Marine Corps career, left out of division schools and Camp Margarita, and I was with the weapons company cat too, yep, so we deployed out to Sangin, afghanistan.
Speaker 2:Where were you in Sangin? What time were you there?
Speaker 1:2010 to 2011. We were PB Chakal Nole Fob Jackson. We were in the 611 as we were trying to get a hold of that situation.
Speaker 2:So I was there in 2011 and 2012 or no 2012 and 2013.
Speaker 2:Sorry, 2012 and 2013, and I was right across the river from jackson, okay, at shikhtani yeah that, that wadi, that was there that yeah so we built a bridge over that wadi, really, and one of our honestly harder missions uh, mostly because of the duration was protecting the engineers while they built that bridge and we're truly trying to set it up so that sangin could make it over to musa kila to vote in their first election. Yeah, and man, the taliban, they did not want that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're really trying to stop this as much as possible.
Speaker 2:I honestly don't know if anybody from the Afghan or the Pashtun side of things if they cared one way or another about voting, but it's always nice to have a bridge, especially during flood stages and things like that. Were you ever there when that river got big?
Speaker 1:No, no, we weren't there during any of the rain, like the heavy rains or anything like that. I think luckily we avoided some rollovers with the MRAPs and Matt Vs and stuff. Might have had one or two little incidents over in the green zone, yeah, but that was about it.
Speaker 2:Tough fighting in Sangan.
Speaker 1:It was tough. It shapes who you are after. If you're lucky enough to come home, you know like you talked about the struggles and I don't want to speak generalities, but a lot of guys struggle with the why me? And then it turns into the questions you should be asking, which is how do I make best use of the time that I was given extra? That's one of the reasons I love Peaky Blinders. There's a scene where they talk about they died out there and everything after that is extra. So you really gotta, really gotta, take into account what you're given after and live up. Live up to the sacrifices you know.
Speaker 2:So let's, let's get into that. Why me? Because all kinds of people struggle with that in and out of the military right. How would you finish the rest of that sentence? Or or or buff that out, because why me?
Speaker 1:can can have all kinds of different angles on it I, you know, I think it depends on what your mentality is going into things, um, and how you're able to reconcile what you're there to do versus what did or didn't happen to you, um, and I think being able to separate those things a lot better is ultimately what helps you move forward. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's kind of the way I see it is. That's what I was there to do. This is what did or didn't happen.
Speaker 1:Now I've got to take the end result of whatever it was and continue to move forward, but unfortunately, a lot of people succumb, whether it's in the middle or outside of it, and that's where I think we could do a little bit better job. Yeah, you know a little bit of a job. Things like check on your homies and things like even just transitioning out of the military is such a huge shift, and this has been talked about over and over, but it's something that should never stop being talked about, whether it's guys right now that are not in the g-wad era or guys that were in the g-wad era is how can I make sure at least my little circle is thriving, um, and then, unfortunately, life gets in the way man, life gets in the way. Family, kids, businesses, work, jobs. They're like damn, I haven't talked to this student forever and he was my brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what I mean. We did some crazy shit, shit that we'll take to the grave, and I haven't talked to him in two years. So it's you know. Hopefully someone hears this and you know what? Fuck, let me call that guy that I haven't talked to in a little while because and that's all it takes, like it's not.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, you can just pick up the phone and you know, go go into your photos and find a picture of you and all the boys, yeah, and go to the third one from the left and find his number and give him a call and be like, hey, how you living.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how you doing. Good Cool, set aside 20, 30 minutes for a conversation and keep going. Then go back to your chaos, you know.
Speaker 2:And don't take those short answers Right, like don't accept that. Yeah, that was a lesson I got from Lieutenant Colonel John Louder. He was the battalion commander at 2nd Tanks and he was a tremendous leader. He knew the name of every Marine in the battalion, he knew what their favorite sports team was, he knew if they were married, what their wife's name was, if they had kids, if they had health issues, how their family was, and he would spend part of every day walking around the tank ramp and having meaningful conversations with with the marines.
Speaker 2:I don't know anything about colonel louder from a tactical standpoint right I don't know anything about how he managed uh, the the field grade officers in the battalion, but I know that when he walked up he was going to know my, he was going to know my name, he was going to know a little bit about me and it felt like he cared Right. And if you walked past somebody and said good morning Marine and they said good morning sir, that wasn't going to be good enough. He was going to get into it with him and it just doesn't take that much difference. But if that guy showed up here and asked me for anything, I would do it.
Speaker 1:Right, I showed up here and asked me for anything, I would do it, right, you know, yeah, and as an officer for you guys, I mean that's one of the things that I'm, I'm I'm assuming is a deeply ingrained in you. It's more than leadership, it has to be not just the check in the box.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not just a check in the box and and those are the officers that, like you said, will follow wherever they lead Because it takes another level and it adds another layer to that bond. Everybody talks about the bond in the military, but it's not automatic, and I say this to my friends and the guys that I have working with me You've got to water relationships constantly. So on the 26-hour drive up here from Texas, I go through my own Rolodex in my mind and like who have I have, who haven't I talked to? Who do I have to call? See how's it going. I don't care if he's my shirt printer, I don't care if he's a guy that I served with, I don't care if the guy that cut my grass, you know, like everything good and then, because you never know what that might foster, what that might help, what that might do for that person. So it's just the way I like to live.
Speaker 2:Who's checking in on you?
Speaker 1:Things like this. You know, all the guys around me, I surround myself with the types of people that I can have conversations like this with, and conversations that can go down that rabbit hole and can go down that road. And if I'm asked, I talk about it. Yeah, and my wife, wife, I gotta mention that my wife's constantly there.
Speaker 1:She's a pillar for me, like a gem yeah, she's a gem um shout out to velvet yeah shout out to velvet uh, when she hears this, she'll be super stoked. Um, she is quite literally the single pillar that holds up this wide football field of everything that I am.
Speaker 2:And you two started dating in high school or junior high.
Speaker 1:Yeah, high school. We've known each other since junior high, so 2008 is when we got married A couple, I think even two weeks after I turned 18. And she was with me through the entire military, through the entire time getting out time in the oil field, time contracting. She's one of those things where I can't let go, tell me about the oil field.
Speaker 1:So when I got out of the Marines, one of the guys that we had lost his name was Lance Corporal Rusk. They held a memorial for him every year of roping, so I was invited by the family to go out there Like a team roping A team roping, yes, Out in South Texas. I had never been in anything like that. I wanted to go see the family and I wanted to visit his grave because we hadn't done that. So I came out there and met some amazing people and coming from California to a place like Texas and to a specific place like that, like Orange Grove that's a town of 1100 people is truly indescribable, and I hope that more Americans get to feel something like that, because it's the true definition of community and it's the true definition of what America should ultimately strive to be as a whole.
Speaker 2:How so.
Speaker 1:The way they look out for each other and the way they're there for one another and the way they accepted me. Um, you know, yeah, I had my ties to them in the military and I had my ties to them, you know, kind of with with their family. But they accepted me with open arms and what I needed, and more so the the time that came after, because I went back to california after the memorial. I was in the process for, I think, la xPD. It's taking forever to get a background investigator and I ran out of money.
Speaker 1:So while I was there for the memorial, I had met some people that talked to me about the, the oil field. You know, it was kind of a boom going on then, and so I picked up the phone. I said, hey, can I come out there? Like hell, yeah. So I got out there and it was just hey, come live with us, with us, you know, you can stay here for a while. Some amazing families Chris Simons, scott Kierhoff, you know the Russ family. They were just amazing to me and I have to give credit to them because they fostered what I ultimately became.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. I'm going to circle back on that.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:But you worked in the oil field for a while and then what were you doing specifically? Like what was your downhole?
Speaker 1:chemicals. So I work for a company called Tornado Productions and what we did is we mix fluids to help coil tubing as it goes down the casing. So you've got a drill, then you go in and this is the stage after fracking.
Speaker 1:So, they put plugs throughout the entirety of the casing after fracking. So they put plugs throughout the entirety of the casing. Coil tubing goes down there with what's called the motor. It's spinning. You know pressure with water and you need to lubricate that stuff and you need to mix xanthan gels to bring up the trash and all of that. So that's what I did Downhole chemicals Interesting yeah.
Speaker 2:Now, oil is something that we all use, right? Every single one of us, and I don't care who you are. You are using oil, you're using a petroleum product, probably on a daily basis, but, man, we know nothing about how it gets out of the ground and gets to us in a useful product.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the people that do it I talked about this during my congressional campaign was the type of human being that goes out there at 4 30 in the morning and is dumping their ice chest to fill it up, to go out on location over and over and over, and most of these companies don't have a schedule, you know, it's sometimes it's 24, 7, 365. Yeah, um, it's just. The people that do this are fucking amazing, yeah. So, uh, that's why I talked about that on the trail, like I want to represent these people, because that's the district. The 27th district is heavy on, you know, oil field and refining and stuff.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so we're. We're there now. You ended up caring so much about this community in far south texas that you wanted to represent them in congress, and you ran for congress. I did, yeah, and we just had the primary yeah, we just had the primary. It didn't go my way, um, but it was something that I had to check, dude I think in a lot of ways it did go your way I I thought about this for most of last night yeah tell me about the dollars per vote.
Speaker 1:so the dollars per vote we spent less than $20,000. And if I remember correctly the numbers off the top of my head, first place, the incumbent, michael Cloud, spent around, if the numbers reported correctly, $6-ish per vote, $350,000 in the war chest I don't know how much of that was actually spent and then second place, about $500 ish dollars. So he was uh, he was high, he was in, I think, in the high 40s per vote 40 dollars per vote.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. This is such an abstract way of thinking about elections, but it's the most honest way to do it right right we know campaigns are expensive. We know that people people are, are, you know, constantly trying to build up that war chest. But when you think about how what that actually boils down to, it is dollars per vote in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1:And that's what you know. I didn't have a political consult. I had some people that were kind of on the outside helping me and guiding me and stuff, but I didn't have a political consultant. That was on my team. It was me. I was a campaign manager, I was a candidate consultant. That was on my team, it was me, I was a campaign manager, I was a candidate, I was a social media guy and it was because I started so late.
Speaker 2:I started about 90 days before the primary really yeah, so I had you did that well in three months yeah, I did that.
Speaker 1:We came in third place. Um, came in third place, uh, first timer. So we spent about four bucks per vote, if I remember correctly. So someone just kind of pulled me aside and said, hey, all you need is money. Yeah, you know. So the message that I had was very limited government. I'm a big proponent for term limits and now I'm not naive enough to think that I will be able to pass a bill, especially as a freshman or two term congressman, three term congressman able to pass a bill, especially as a freshman or two-term congressman, three-term congressman. But if we could show americans that there are human beings that exist that can self-impose term limits on themselves and talk about power in a sense, where it isn't required to live and it isn't required, or you're not required, to hold on to it for a long period of time, I'm a firm believer that it corrupts you. You know power over time is going to do something to me.
Speaker 2:It's a rule.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And it doesn't just happen some of the time, or even most of the time, it happens every time eventually. Yeah, I think one of the greatest things that George Washington ever did was self-impose a term limit because you know there's people that wanted to call, call him like you know, his majesty and like all this craziness and you know he could have easily stepped in and just been the king of america right and created another monarchy, but he didn't.
Speaker 2:He, he wanted to pass that torch. Yeah, really, really incredible. And of course we have that uh now with our presidency. We haven't always uh, was it uh fdr? You know he was in for like 16 years or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interrupted?
Speaker 2:maybe, but how long should term limits be in congress? Do you think it should be two terms? Should it be three terms?
Speaker 1:you know, I think somewhere between six years, which is three terms, and maybe eight, someone who's very effective, very good, very I don't want to say beloved, but well-respected within their community.
Speaker 1:And I'm looking at this from an ignorant standpoint and when I say this I don't have the knowledge and the inner workings of what goes on inside. One of the biggest complaints about term limits is well, we'll keep getting ineffective people because they don't know the system right, they don't know how to work things, they don't know how to will and deal, and my answer to that is one the term that's the way it's always been done is the killer of progress. And I think right now, where we're at as an American system is we need to find something that can take us to the next level and start to gain the trust of the American people back, because it's a shame that we look at our government and that we looked at our elected leaders with distaste, with mistrust and with um I don't know that hates too strong of a word, but uh, just ugly. Yeah, some contempt a lot of times, for sure.
Speaker 2:You know, congressional approval just keeps getting lower.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And regardless of what political party people are in, they blame the president, the executive branch, for a lot of things that are probably congressional. Right, because if you look at the way our federal government is set up, with Congress and the court system and the executive branch, it's really set up with a lot of balance, something a constitutional historian pointed out to me once because I was complaining about how slow things go and how hard it is to affect change, and he pointed out that that that was intentional. It's intentional to have enough friction in the system that nothing can change instantly, because then it can be the whims of whatever the mood is at the time. But if you have all these stops and blocks, then you can prevent things from happening really quickly.
Speaker 2:With the turnover thing, I do believe that it takes a while to learn how to be a congressman, and of the congressmen that I've talked to, they tell me the same thing, right, but you're never going to have a total turnover all at once no, you can't you're going to have people who have been in for six years, you're going to have people that have been in for four years, and you could easily develop a curriculum, if you will right, so that those, those more senior members who are kind of the nco status, can be helping out the the new guys who are coming in yeah, and that was one of my approaches too.
Speaker 1:So it's it's very, very complex approach and I understand that when one of them is being, instead of utilizing what you have as an incumbent to get yourself elected again, uh, transition of power, kind of like what we did in the marine corps right, when one vc comes in and literally hands over the battalion to someone else, and, instead of that friction kind of finding that successor that aligns with your ideas, you bring them onto your staff and where they can get a little bit of training before they take over for you.
Speaker 1:And my idea behind that is so that ideas aren't stagnant and approaches aren't stagnant and instead of trying to make it as complicated as it is right now, like these huge omnibus packages, we can focus more on a streamlined approach. Right and who knows, maybe I'm wrong, but that's my idea behind why I would, why I wanted to be in Congress, was to show know if, if, everybody's gonna follow your example.
Speaker 2:I don't know if anybody would follow your example. Just because that corruption starts to get in there and it's a bit of a vampire bite and so many congressmen just end up wanting to stay for as long as possible. So many of them get very wealthy doing it, yeah, and and they get away with that, right? Uh, and everybody knows that it's crooked, it looks extremely suspicious.
Speaker 1:We know what your salary is yeah, why?
Speaker 2:why are you making this much money? Why is Nancy Pelosi?
Speaker 1:investing the way she is. You know it looks shady, but it's okay. Then you know, um, yeah, I guess it started with the book ego is the enemy for me and some personal things in life that were going on and harnessing your ego as a man, as a person, as a, you know, person just leaving the military, it's very important. And then the idea came behind okay, what can I apply this to? I now have my ego under control, my mind under control. I don't want anything. It's kind of spent the last few years releasing all of my wants in life and now. So that idea was to apply it to politics. Well, I don't want power, yeah, so what happens if I just fucking hold it for a little bit right, pass it on and continue my life? So that's kind of the overall idea behind running and wanting to be a representative after you got out of the oil field, you started working as a contractor correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started contract overseas this is something that people know nothing about as well right right they might see something on a video game. They might see something on a video game they might see something on the news and they have a really distorted view of what contractors are and they confuse it with mercenaries and they, they just don't, don't understand. So talk, talk me through what. What contracting was for you? And trying to help people, try and help the audience understand it a little bit better.
Speaker 1:It depends there's. So there's different approaches to contracting. Yeah, there's different jobs, everything from electricians to security guys, right, and so when you hear contracting, it all depends on what that specific person's skill set is. For me, it was on the security side, and being able to work, or, say, work for contract for entities like the State Department in Kabul and in different parts of the world, is something that and let's get into it a little bit more, because security is a pretty ambiguous term.
Speaker 2:Right, does that mean you're installing cameras or putting signs in the yard of the embassy Like what is security and how do you?
Speaker 1:achieve it. Physical security, whether you're on a compound or whether you're providing a compound, or whether you're providing, you know, psd or personal security, detachments and movements. And so that's, that was my end of it, was that side, and, um, it was something that I just had in my back pocket. Uh, this whole time, this idea that I wanted to do it, um, this, I hadn't scratched the itch, I hadn't really fully, I guess, done everything that I wanted. I got out of the marine corps for the wrong reasons. I was chasing money or refinery job in southern california, and then I couldn't go back in. It was just at the time of the drawdown and it was just almost gonna be impossible to go back in. So, um, ended up in the oil field and then, hey, this was gonna be the thing that was gonna finish scratching that itch for me.
Speaker 1:So, and it did and I fell back into an area where you have the camaraderie again. You have that circle around you and, for people who don't understand what it is, it's almost like being back in the military, because you're surrounded by almost the same exact people. In a lot of instances you run into a lot of people that you served with prior. So it's a great way to do it. Plus, you make a little bit more money, so that never hurts was it ever kinetic?
Speaker 1:in cobble uh, you know, you still had your rounds going off and your uh, you know shells landing in moors and tell me a story I like stories like stories. Okay, um big ids. You know whether there were v-bids at camp sullivan one time embassy. What happened? What's that? What happened? I'm trying to fucking remember.
Speaker 2:It was just this is another thing that that people don't realize, and this has been really misrepresented in the media they say oh, oh, no, if this happened to you, you remember everything. It's like no, no, you don't, no, you don't. In fact, you might not even remember the people's names who you were with.
Speaker 1:Well, and there's so many little instances too. So whether it's a Code Red, you're constantly under Code Red. It's Cabo, Afghanistan.
Speaker 2:What's Code Red?
Speaker 1:Code Red is a shelter in place. You know we're being either actively attacked, actively ordered Shoot around a compound. It never happened in Northern Rare, but you have your teams there ready for it. But yeah, to get back to that, it is hard to remember all the details of everything, but constant stuff, constant rain and porters and rockets yeah, and that's almost, isn't it?
Speaker 2:funny how used to that you can get. That's what I was going to talk about.
Speaker 1:It's almost like, oh crap, another one, I don't want to go to a bunker. I don't want to move to a bunker. I don't want to treat this as it's actually happening. It's like an inconvenience, right, and that's what it turns into it's an inconvenience. However, it's important to remember while it's going on like okay, shit, man, let me grab my kid, even though I'm half naked, and move to a bunker, or you know, go out to the roof or do whatever. My specific job is.
Speaker 2:So I occasionally felt, you know, during times like that, when there's, you know, shots are coming in, whatever, there's some type of an attack occurring, say, you're eating or you're going to the bathroom, the level of fear sometimes is the same as if somebody was sitting in the comfort of their home eating cereal and they heard their phone start ringing in the other room and they knew that they were going to have to stop and get up and go over there.
Speaker 2:So the amount of annoyance or inconvenience you feel during that time that's really similar to eventually how it gets when you're being attacked by mortars and rockets.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's strange it's, and it's very hard to explain that to people if you ever do. Conversations like this are few and far between, unless you're with like-minded people and you actually start talking about it. But yeah, it is strange. I don't want to say numb, but I like annoyance. It's a great way to put it, it's just very big.
Speaker 2:And it's weird where life takes you, like right now. Behind us we've got a couple of trophy trucks, we've got four Las Vegas models that are, you know, not dressed for the weather. I guess, would be a polite way to say it A bunch of photographers over there behind us. We've got, you know, people shooting guns in 17 different directions. There's drones flying around and motorcycles shooting guns in 17 different directions. There's drones flying around and motorcycles. And all this was a result of you and I going into the Marine Corps, right.
Speaker 2:So if we didn't make that decision, then we're not standing here having this conversation in this very bizarre environment you know, it's just it's crazy.
Speaker 1:It is crazy and it makes me super grateful that this is my path.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now we've got a kid on the other side, yeah, there's a little kid on a little mini KTM ripping around Like I love this. This is good America right here.
Speaker 1:And hopefully we can throw up some footage with this.
Speaker 2:I know we will Because people have it's going to be hard for people to understand.
Speaker 1:Sure, just listen to it. Yeah, yeah, back to your point. Though I was just talking to Luke about this, it's a series of events that lead you to where you are right now, and sometimes everything just lines up perfectly, and that's been my biggest opening. It's opened my mind to faith. It's opened my mind to faith. It's opened my mind to this is where I'm supposed to be. I'm at a point in my life now where I can look back you're a kid.
Speaker 2:If we can't do a podcast with a little kid ripping around a gun range on a dirt bike, I don't want to do it for those of you who have been bowling and put up little bumpers for either yourself or a small child.
Speaker 1:That's kind of the way I'm at right now. I can look back on my life and see the bumpers. I see the hand there I see God's hand. I'm like all right, cool, I'm headed in the right direction, because something put me in the right direction. It just fills me with joy and it fills me with comfort.
Speaker 2:I come at it from a slightly different perspective, but arrive at the same result, which is that I think that this situation was inevitable. It was an eventuality that was always going to occur, and what the design of that is, I don't know. It was an eventuality that was always going to occur, and what the design of that is, I don't know. But I do believe that we're living life on rails and the destination is going to happen regardless.
Speaker 1:And it makes me think because not everyone's life is that way. Not everyone's life is. I guess for some people it might seem like it's off the rails, right yeah? And it's not, you just can't see them, you just can't see them I guess that's a good way to look at it, where they went off the rails willingly or all they need to do is get back on, but it does make me think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally, but it does make me think, yeah, totally, yeah, uh, talk to me a little bit about, like the, the primary issues that are occurring, uh, in in your congressional district. Right, you said oil field is a big part of it. Um, there's a strong christian faith in that area. Uh, I imagine that those christ Christians feel somewhat under attack right now. And then border security, I would guess.
Speaker 1:What else? Definitely on the border side. It's not geographically specific and I want listeners to understand that, whoever it is, it's not something that's and I want listeners to understand that, whoever it is, it's not something that's only going to affect people in texas or only affect people in south texas. It's, um, it's something we all kind of kind of face head on and why is that sovereignty of our nation isn't something that uh be compromised.
Speaker 1:You know, a border isn't something that. It isn't a symbol of racism or oppression. All it is is simply a structure and it's a notice to the rest of the world that we're never to be invaded, harmed or influenced by an outside power. To me, that's what a border is. So not being able to exercise our sovereignty puts into question our nation as a whole. What we stand for in our laws and I love invisible things, and what I mean by that is you know, I call this super cheesy but honor, respect and all of those things, and without those invisible things like laws and rules and structure, then we fall apart.
Speaker 1:And I feel like that's what's under attack right now is are those invisible things not just in my district, but in the nation as a whole, and we need to realize that we're not that far removed from divulging to other chaos and the fabric of society relies on love and respect and the ability to govern ourselves. So when you start to chip away at the pillars of a nation, what happens Ultimately? You're gone, and that's kind of the importance of it. So, whether you're in Oregon, whether you're in New York, california, wherever know that when—and then you get into politics right, you get into the politics side. When the border is talked about, it's turned into a polarizing issue and it's turned into this side versus that side.
Speaker 1:And, as a, say, hispanic, I think it's important for me to talk about it in English and Spanish and tell people this is not. This has nothing to do with denying someone the ability to have a better life. You know, immigration is absolutely necessary for a nation to thrive, to grow, but the way it's being done right now is we have no ability to catalog properly. I'll say I don't want to speak for border patrol as a whole. We have, we don't have the ability to to really know what's coming in and really, um, prepare for anything. So it's a crapshoot. You know, it's like playing the roulette table here in vegas I have no fucking idea what number it's going to land on, um, and I might be betting on the wrong one. So it's uh. That's kind of what scares me as an individual.
Speaker 2:No it does. Some things that I've learned in the times that I've got to go to South Texas is that there's a real seasonality in when migrants are coming right, because it's a hell of a lot harder in the summertime. It's a long walk, there's no water, right, so you'll see it in the news a lot more in the winter than you will in the summer.
Speaker 2:And there's a reason for that. The other thing that I found is that there's a lot more people coming than what I saw on the news and they're walking a lot farther. So some of the places that I was hunting were 40 50 miles from the border and still every single fence post has bent wire off either side of it from people walking over it. There's hair hanging off the wire, there's trash everywhere. People are still walking when they're 40 or 50 miles into america right, um, that in.
Speaker 2:You would have to go down there and see those thorns and cactus to really understand how hard that is and exactly what people must be coming from and how bad it must be for it to be worth it to a healthy society. But there's got to be a right way to do it, and if that way is too difficult right now to be accessible, then that's part of the talks that need to occur about reform. But we've got to be able to at least secure our border. We have to have that ability and we can't hamstring the people that are trying to do it. You know, when you were in Sangan, the rules of engagement were very different from when I was in Sangan, but it was the same fight. I just wasn't able to fight back as hard as you were. And when I look at what Border Patrol is going through right now, I feel like we're handcuffing them in a lot of ways that I don't think is fair to anybody involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I wonder at what level for them, politics starts to become a factor. You know, and you you know, being an officer, you know that you can give your guys more power if you really want to, and I hope that there are leaders within Border control that are willing to take some proactive steps.
Speaker 1:I'll say as things get worse, but pretty bad right now and say you know what? I don't know where this is going to land on my career, but let's do the right thing and at least back these guys up. So then you get into the politics side of it, which is why is this happening?
Speaker 2:Why are the?
Speaker 1:Democrats allowing this? Why is the Democratic presidency allowing this? Republicans, what can they do? What haven't they done? It's so messy and everyone's just pointing a finger at each other and you almost wonder if it's intentional. You almost wonder is there a plan behind this? You?
Speaker 2:almost wonder is there a plan for this? Yeah, we blame malice a lot of times For stupidity, when incompetence will do right. So I think if incompetence is a possibility, it's a probability.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah oftentimes. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But gosh, I sure hope that that's the case. Sure, yeah, because we can fix that we can train our way out of it, we can commune or we can communicate our way out of it, but if it is actually malice, that's a much bigger problem but to your point earlier is it's when are we going to start to change?
Speaker 1:because, Because, like you said, if it is designed to be a slow progression towards whatever progress is right and slow moving, then we've got to start sooner rather than later. As a country, the parties as a whole, even within the Republican Party, right we have so much friction and so many different factions and people working against each other.
Speaker 1:When not only are you on the, same team as a party, but you're on the same team as a mission. I was discouraged at times to notice that and to see it. But what can you do? I guess that's the way the system is right now. All I can do is try my part to change it, even if it's incremental.
Speaker 2:You're not going to turn the ship around no you might not even be able to turn it in the right direction, right, but you might be able to keep it from getting farther to the wrong direction. Yeah, and I think that that's that's a realistic thing for somebody new getting into politics. It's like how can I keep it from getting worse? Like that's the foothold right and in in the marine corps we're taught you know recon, isolate, gain a foothold and seize the objective you know, that that's carved into us.
Speaker 2:So I really feel like you are in that recon phase right now. You you made you made a at Congress. You had 90 days to do it. You did extremely well for the time that you had to be able to apply to it. You learned a lot and now you can start to isolate those problems and the next time you go you're going to be able to gain that foothold and keep moving forward, and I'm really excited for it.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's going to be in two years or four years or six years, but you know people need to keep an eye on you because you're coming at it with your heart in the right place and if ever there was a state that could recognize that, it is Texas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:And I owe it.
Speaker 1:Like you talked about earlier, I owe it, so I don't like owing anybody money or anything. So it's one of those things that's in the back of my mind too. I've got to pay this place back in some way, shape or form. It's a very big statement. So yeah, man, I agree with you. It'll happen again. I don't know when. I don't specifically even know where. It might be the same district and I'll be somewhere else, but I know that it'll happen again.
Speaker 2:We can't just keep putting seals in congress we need some marines in there.
Speaker 1:Is there a?
Speaker 2:single marine in congress right now.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there are. There has to be does that. Guys, forgive me if I didn't do my proper research. Please reach out to me. I don't know one. Maybe one of the SEALs can write the book how to run for Congress they can give us an outing manual. Sorry guys write the book how to run for Congress like a Navy SEAL. I'll read it and that's it. That'll solve all my problems.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, after the book comes out, maybe we can find out who the ghost writer is who actually wrote the book and talk to them about it.
Speaker 1:I love you guys, just so you know.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love them too.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't talk trash about scales if I didn't love them. I think it's a good place to talk about it. Maybe you agree with this and maybe you don't. There's a unique arrogance in this. You can be sitting in front of a tier one guy, whoever he's named, and it doesn't matter who that marine is. Almost what they did in the end.
Speaker 1:It was just this small sense of arrogance when you look at this tier one dude, the god amongst men, and you go yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, and and and. It's the lean back and strut from day one that you get taught. Yep, it's lean back and strut, act like you own the fucking world, because you're going to need it. You're going to need that attitude and that's helped me in business, it's helped me in Congress, it's helped me even in this podcast. You know, once you know I don't, sometimes you get imposter syndrome like holy shit. You know, I'm talking to you, I'm here, I've got other stuff going on. Do I belong here?
Speaker 2:and it's a split second, yep well, yeah, and marines do it with less, they do it with less training, they do it with gear that's broken or missing. You know, they don't know what the plan is. They're just going out there and like blindly doing impossible things, yeah, and have been doing it since 1775 and will continue to. Uh, you know? That's, I think, where so much of that swagger comes from. In marines it's like, yeah, okay, you're, you're delta, you're a green beret, you're a seal. Congratulations, you had everything that you ever asked for and 10 replacements for you you know, I had nothing, I had nothing and got it done anyways.
Speaker 2:And those marines that I worked with, they were in the same situation and we did it together and uh, yeah, god bless them for that. Like the it, we we heard it a lot in the marine corps and I don't know if civilians actually hear this or not, but we I constantly heard that, uh, that the nation doesn't necessarily want a marine corps, but they need a marine corps yeah, yeah and it's little.
Speaker 2:It's so little. People don't understand that either. There's more lieutenants in the army than there are marines in the marine corps. That's fucking awesome, you know, yeah, yeah so when they say the few, the proud of the marines. Whoever wrote that understood the marine corps so well, because that that really does embody it in the fewest amount of words you could use yeah, and it's timeless too, because it just seems that, no matter what, every generation of Marines that goes in can stop the scene and it's obviously by design, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's such effective brainwashing. Yeah, that's what it is, dude. It's permanent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I love that right now as we're sitting here, we're going to have some beers later. We're having a great time. There's a dude suffering in boot camp right now Just hating his fucking life.
Speaker 2:there's a dude suffering in boot camp right now.
Speaker 1:it makes me so happy like when I'm in traffic there's some kid getting hazed on the deck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I'll see these storms roll through quantico virginia and being like oh there are officers who are struggling so hard right now. They are lost, they're cold, they don't understand. Yeah, oh, it just warms my heart yeah, man.
Speaker 1:So I took that, applied it to the business, and that's where we're going.
Speaker 2:What can people do in the meantime to support you and support your business?
Speaker 1:so we're redefined violence on instagram. We have a tiktok uh, I'll give you everything. I don't know if you can post this stuff. Just redefine, underscore violence. Please follow us there as links to everything.
Speaker 1:We started a show as well, called redefine violence. It'll be on YouTube or it's actually on YouTube already, where I go around and I want to interview violent artists, violent professionals and survivors of violent circumstance. So we have such a wide variety of people that we can talk to or it's not just someone who has to have been in the military or police officer it could be, you know, a nurse in the ER, it could be, you know, a survivor of trauma and talk to them and see how they've overcome it and if they've used anything like boxing or like jujitsu or shooting or long range shooting to overcome these things. Now, those things are violent, you know. So that's where the name comes from. Being able to get people to understand is you can train in these art forms, you can use these things for good, for your own soul, for your own progression as a person. Just because they're considered violent arts to someone who's ignorant doesn't mean that they come with malintentions and and it's not uncontrolled right.
Speaker 2:A violent artist is somebody who's capable of it but is also capable of controlling it. I was thinking about this coming through the airports yesterday, right after I got back from Afghanistan. I was flying somewhere, I was on leave and I had a tight connection. You know a flight had been delayed. I needed to make it to the next gate and if you know anything about Marines, you know that we are absolutely terrified of being late by a second, like I will do ridiculous things to be on time. So I'm trying to make it to the next gate and I'm in the jet bridge and I try to walk on the left of somebody in the jet bridge, and I'm in the jet bridge and I try to walk on the left of somebody in the jet bridge and I still, to this day, do not know if there's like a code that you're not supposed to pass anybody there.
Speaker 2:But evidently this guy thought that there was and he reached out and he grabbed the strap on my backpack and yanked me backwards. I had just got back from Afghanistan, okay, and my first like feeling to react was something of tremendous violence. But what I did was not that I stopped. I talked to the guy for a second. I said hey, trying to make it to my next flight. I'm I'm sorry if I, if I bothered you by walking past you. That didn't work. He was he, he had his own deal, like he was pissed. I was like whatever.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm leaving this situation, but that's a really good example that I think of in my own life of a time where I was especially capable of violence, but I was also capable of completely controlling it, and I think that that that is really something that a lot of people need to understand about folks who, either professionally or just as part of their well-being, take part in some of these violent arts. Whether that's martial arts, whether that's shooting sport, whether it's somebody who's cutting meat, all these things can appear violent, but it's not the same as violence in the way that you might initially think about it. So I really appreciate what you're doing, and then the survivors of violent circumstances. Being able to pull those folks into this community and be able to talk about it in a way that's comfortable with people who have had shared experiences, it's incredibly powerful. So if you go back to the check on your homies thing, you need to be able to do it from a place of sympathy and empathy. You've got to have compassion and understanding in order to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so our logo is the wolf in sheep's clothing and, traditionally, historically, the story of evil hidden amongst evil, right, well, we tell the story different. We tell it as capable. Evil hidden amongst right. Well, we tell the story different. We tell it as capable, hidden amongst the oblivious. And there's this one design that we have where there's a tear coming down the uh, sheep's wool, you know, out of the eye and it's on, uh, it's on a wolf and it's got kind of a smirk to it. The reason we named itars was that's who you used to be right, and you've shed that and you are now. What's underneath? And you now have that confidence, regardless of whatever experience brought you to this, to buy this shirt, to look at this design. It represents both who you were and who you are now, and every piece of art that we have has a story behind it. It has a meaning behind it.
Speaker 2:We don't just throw it on there, we like to give it a little bit and just slap it in the room. That's awesome. I like it. I'm going to order some stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, let us restock. Since the campaign I kind of got behind on a little bit of restocks, but you guys give me some time Whenever this goes up. We've got a bunch of merch coming out and, like I said, now we manufacture boxing gloves, rash guards. We have our own target. We've got a bunch of stuff on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, they can just follow you on Instagram and then, when stuff is ready to come out, then they can support you there and then look for you in Texas' future. All right, man, I appreciate you very much, I appreciate what you're doing and, uh, this is a a good conversation in a wild environment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, let's go shoot some guns, all right I just want to take a second and thank everyone who's written a review, who has sent mail, who sent emails, who sent messages. Your support is incredible and I also love running into you at trade shows and events and just out on the hillside when we're hunting. I think that that's fantastic. I hope you guys keep adventuring as hard and as often as you can. Art for the six ranch podcast was created by John Chatelain and was digitized by Celia Harlander. Original music was written and performed by Justin Hay, and the Six Ranch Podcast is now produced by Six Ranch Media. Thank you all so much for your continued support of the show and I look forward to next week when we can bring you a brand new episode.