#213 Braxton McCoy - Why is the US Government Selling Millions of Acres of Public Land?

Summary

Shawn Ryan Show Episode #213: Braxton McCoy - Why is the US Government Selling Millions of Acres of Public Land?

Release Date: June 30, 2025

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Introduction: A Collective Victory

In the opening segment of Episode #213, host Shawn Ryan shares a significant triumph with his audience. He announces that, thanks to collective outcry and advocacy, a proposal to sell between 2 and 3 million acres of public land for affordable housing has been halted. Ryan expresses gratitude towards prominent figures who stood up against this move, emphasizing the power of united citizen voices.

Shawn Ryan [01:05]: "We need a third party... When you speak out, you're going up against people who... are a corrupt establishment."

Introducing Braxton McCoy: Defender of Public Lands

Braxton McCoy, the guest for this episode, is introduced as a passionate advocate against the privatization of America's public lands. His background as a son of southern Utah, a combat veteran, rancher, and horse trainer underscores his deep connection to these lands.

Shawn Ryan [16:35]: "Braxton McCoy, a son of southern Utah... a combat veteran who survived a suicide bomber in Iraq... a patriot who sees these lands as bought with blood from Lewis and Clark to Teddy Roosevelt."

Historical Context: The Foundations of Public Land Preservation

Braxton delves into the history of public land in the United States, tracing its origins to the nation's founding. He explains how land was acquired through conquest, treaties, and purchases, emphasizing that the ethos of preservation was established by early leaders like Theodore Roosevelt.

Braxton McCoy [43:51]: "When somebody asked me how did we end up with public land? My answer is conquest, war treaties, purchase. That's how we did it."

Current Threats: The Push to Sell Public Lands

The core of the discussion centers on the ongoing efforts by certain politicians, including Senator Mike Lee, to sell millions of acres of public land. Braxton explains the legal mechanisms, such as the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), which currently governs land use but can be manipulated to facilitate privatization.

Braxton McCoy [15:17]: "Well, that's the legal term that they use. It's really like transfer to a municipality or an organization for development and growth, things like that."

Implications of Land Privatization

Both Ryan and McCoy express deep concerns about the consequences of selling public lands. They highlight the potential loss of habitat for wildlife, deterioration of ecosystems, and the diminishing ability of everyday Americans to access and enjoy these natural spaces.

Braxton McCoy [105:08]: "Mule deer populations are on decline across the entirety of the west. Have been for years..."

Personal Journey and Advocacy

Braxton shares his personal story, detailing his experiences in Iraq, the injuries he sustained, and how they shaped his dedication to preserving public lands. His transition from military service to activism illustrates his unwavering commitment to protecting these areas for future generations.

Braxton McCoy [21:38]: "My family got to enjoy the most as a family was public ground. We'd go out fishing and just to look at its nice too."

Political Maneuvering and Opposition

The episode delves into the political strategies employed to advance the sale of public lands, including the use of lobbying firms to discredit opponents like Braxton. McCoy recounts attempts to engage with and challenge politicians who support privatization, revealing the often hostile environment activists face.

Braxton McCoy [69:14]: "I was told specifically so, allegedly here, that it was Mike Lee's camp that did that."

Economic Incentives and Development Plans

Ryan questions the financial motivations behind the push to sell public lands, pointing out the potential benefits for large corporations and real estate developers. He challenges the notion that selling land is a viable solution to issues like the housing crisis, especially given the environmental and social costs.

Shawn Ryan [60:33]: "But if we have no place to do it, you know, we don't have room, you know, et cetera. Clearly trying to sell this bill to people."

Conservation and Sustainable Use

Braxton emphasizes the importance of sustainable management of public lands, advocating for responsible grazing, logging, and resource extraction. He criticizes the notion of unlimited resource use, citing historical mismanagement and the pressing need for conservation.

Braxton McCoy [66:45]: "Federal Land and Policy Management Act... it's been abused in a lot of ways under like NEPA and others."

Future Outlook: Calls to Action

As the episode concludes, both Ryan and McCoy stress the urgency of mobilizing citizens to protect public lands. They call for increased awareness, political engagement, and the establishment of third-party organizations to provide alternative solutions to land management and conservation.

Shawn Ryan [01:05]: "...good men to do nothing. And so try to get past the fear, the intimidation, the corruption, and just do what's right, man."

Conclusion: Upholding Stewardship and Heritage

The conversation wraps up with a reaffirmation of the fundamental American values of stewardship and preservation. Braxton and Shawn advocate for maintaining public lands as a legacy for future generations, echoing the principles set forth by the nation's founders.

Braxton McCoy [102:33]: "...this is our land. It's my land. Your land. This is American. American's land that they're able to enjoy like the Theodore Roosevelt wanted us to."

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Notable Quotes:

• Shawn Ryan [01:05]: "For evil to prevail, all that needs to happen is for good men to do nothing."

• Braxton McCoy [16:35]: "Public land is to be managed to make money for the Department of Education."

• Braxton McCoy [105:08]: "Mule deer populations are on decline across the entirety of the west. Have been for years."

• Shawn Ryan [01:05]: "...we need a third party."

• Braxton McCoy [21:38]: "We got to enjoy the land as a family, for recreation and sustenance."

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This episode of the Shawn Ryan Show provides a comprehensive exploration of the threats facing America's public lands, the political and economic forces driving privatization, and the passionate advocacy of individuals like Braxton McCoy dedicated to preserving these natural treasures for future generations.

Transcript

[Sean]

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[Braxton McCoy]

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[Sean]

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[Braxton McCoy]

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[Sean]

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[Braxton McCoy]

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[Sean]

You can Venmo this or you can Venmo that.

[Braxton McCoy]

You can Venmo this.

[Sean]

So you can Venmo that.

[Braxton McCoy]

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[Sean]

Just want to say congratulations to the American citizens. We had a huge win last night. I just got word this morning about it. What am I talking about? I'm talking about certain amount of us politicians, people that we elected were trying to sell in between 2 and 3 million acres of public land. That's land that's ours. The American citizen. That's my land. That's your land. That's land that Theodore Roosevelt set aside for people like us to enjoy and to do as we please on it. Now, what was happening is they wanted to sell between 2 and 3 million acres of public land for affordable housing. That would have affected a lot of people. And we got loud about it. I'm way late to this party, but we got loud about it. And I got word last night that we're gonna pack this into the big beautiful bill and it got pushed out. They dropped it. But I don't think this is over. From my understanding, this has been going on for the better part of a decade, 10 years. And so I'm sure it's gonna pop up again, even though the majority of the American people that I know, I've seen poll after poll that says we do not want our land sold. And so I wanna say thank you to a couple people that were way ahead of me on this. And I just. I just. I have a tremendous Amount of spec. Respect for people to get loud on certain issues because there's a lot of fear that comes with that. So I just. I want to say thank you to Cameron Haynes, to the guys over at Meat Eater, Jocko Willink, Joe Rogan, Senator Tim Sheehy, and most of all, Braxton McCoy, who had the balls to come on my show and talk about this. You know, I'm thanking him because when you do this, when you go up against and speak for the people and talk about what you believe in that isn't in the government's agenda, you carry a ungodly amount of stress, a tremendous amount of fear. I mean, what you're going up against is a corrupt establishment. And it's sad, but they pulled it out of the bill. Like I said, it's probably not over. Crazy, right? You know, I. I hate to say this, but the US Capitol and the majority of DC has turned into the world's most elite, expensive brothel. And they're always open for business so long as it benefits them, the ones sitting in office. And it's disgusting, and I hate what our country has turned into with this. It was never supposed to be like this. It's supposed to be, you represent the people that elected you. And time and time again, I don't feel like that's happening. It's disgusting. We need a third party. I mean, when you speak out, this is why I want to thank these guys. Because when you speak out, you're going up against people who, a couple of years ago, before they were elected, probably didn't have much. The majority of them didn't have much. And time and time again, we see elected officials, and after a couple years, they're millionaires. And after a couple more years, they're worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on a salary that supposedly only pays about $200,000 a year. Now, how does that happen? Well, that's why I say it's become the most elite, most expensive brothel in the world. Not only that, you're going up a against a corrupt government that would potentially target you, put you in prison, have the IRS audit you, make up rumors about you, hire PR firms to dig into your background and find every little mistake that you've made just to push their agenda so that they can get paid off. And it's disgusting. It is disgusting. We need a third party. You know, I fell into the trap of, oh, it's Republicans versus Democrats, man. I know we have a lot of differences, but this is one thing that everybody came together on and Looked what happened, we at least postponed it. Like I said, I don't think it's over. We really need to think about putting a third party together because this is not working. And I want to leave you with a quote might not be exact, but for evil to prevail, all that needs to happen is for good men to do nothing. And so try to get past the fear, the intimidation, the corruption, and just do what's right, man, because I've got kids. You've got kids. This is the future of our country. And if people don't speak up, the country's going to look a lot different sooner than later. We're still releasing the Braxton McCoy interview. And Braxton, man, kudos to you, man, for having the courage to come on my show and educate us on what's going on. I know there's a tremendous amount of fear. I feel it too, man. But thank you. And thank you to everybody else that I just mentioned. Cheers. Braxton McCoy, welcome to the show, man.

[Braxton McCoy]

Thanks for having me.

[Sean]

Sean, you ready to blow the doors off this thing?

[Braxton McCoy]

I mean, I guess I'm overstimulated and wired right now, man.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

Ready to go?

[Sean]

Yeah. So I found you. I was actually. I saw a tweet from Jocko, and I respect a lot of what Jocko has to say, and he had retweeted one of your things, and he just said. He said, pay attention to this guy. So then I went down the rabbit hole, went through your X feed, saw you, shouted me out, and I think Tucker and Rogan about the sale of public land, which I knew nothing about. So I. I retweeted it and said, I'll be in touch. And like an hour later, I started getting phone calls and text messages from all these powerful people on not to do it. And, you know, generally that means we're right over the target. So we didn't really text anybody back because I don't like it when people try to influence who I bring and do not bring on the show. That really fucking pisses me off. You know, it's. It's. I thought everybody was about free speech, but. Guess not. But. But anyway, so just proved to me I was right over the target. We did have a small conversation with. With Lee's office, who seems like he's the one kind of leading this charge. And Jeremy, he was supposed to. They were supposed to send something, right?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. We were looking for a readout of his. His time with the Senate parliamentarian yesterday. I haven't gotten it yet.

[Sean]

Yeah, we haven't gotten it weird, but. Or maybe not. But it's weird, though, because I like a lot of the stuff that Lee has to say.

[Braxton McCoy]

But.

[Sean]

But. But this seems. This seems like somebody's gonna make a lot of money off of national parks and public land. So you seem to be the guy to talk to. So thanks for coming.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, thanks for having me. And when I tweeted that, I wasn't saying I'm the guy, I was just saying, like, let's find the right fucking guy. And then it kind of turned out. People seem to think that I am. So that wasn't me being like, put me on or whatever?

[Sean]

No, I didn't mean that. I just mean you seem to be the one that has the balls to get loud on this. And a lot of people in America now, they don't like to speak up. They don't like to say what's on their mind. They don't like to hold people accountable. And I see you doing it, and I respect the shit out of that, man. Cause I know that takes balls. It's a lot of pressure.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And I know you're going through a lot of stress for different reasons, which we'll get into later. But. But yeah, just thanks for coming and thanks for bringing this to our attention. Because like I said, I knew nothing about it. And I enjoy our national parks. So summer's here, and if you're anything like me, you didn't spend the winter just sitting around. You stayed sharp and kept moving. And now it's time your gear caught up. And that's why I want to introduce you to Roka. I've been looking for eyewear that can handle any situation with performance and style. And let me tell you, these aren't your average shades. I've tested them in the real world, from shooting to fishing to off roading. And they hold up. They're lightweight, don't slide around on my face, and can take a hit without falling apart. And the best part, they look good. They're clean and modern. No frills here. Just premium eyewear that performs without compromise. That's something that I respect. And that's also why every time I head out the door, I reach for my Roka shades. Roka is based in Austin, Texas. American designed, no cut corners. The optics are crystal clear, cut through glare, and the fit stays comfortable all day long. Need a prescription? They've got you covered with both sunglasses and eyeglasses. Not only does Roka have awesome shades, they also have these that protect you against blue light. I Wear these every night when I'm winding down for the day and I still got to look at my phone or my laptop or my iPad. It just helps you wind down and get ready for bed. They are a one stop shop for eyewear that's built to handle whatever life throws at you. Roka is the real deal ready to upgrade your eyewear. Check them out for [e-mail] and use code SRS for 20% off site wide at checkout. That's R O K A.com two words that don't typically go speed with quality. Like you don't hit the drive through and expect a gourmet meal to go. But there's one exception to this unwritten rule. If you're hiring, you can find candidates fast who are also extremely qualified for your job. Just use ZipRecruiter and right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com SRS with ZipRecruiter's advanced resume database, you can find and connect with qualified candidates in minutes. 320,000 new resumes are added monthly so you can reach more potential hires and fill roles sooner. And if you find a candidate you love for the position and want to schedule an in person meeting with them, you can unlock their contact info instantly. Experience hiring speed and quality with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And if you go to ZipRecruiter.com SRS right now, you can try it for free. Again that ZipRecruiter.com SRS ZipRecruiter the smartest way to hire. Sign up for the four day free trial to begin your paid subscription. For restrictions, terms and conditions go to ziprecruiter.com SRS yeah in the so.

[Braxton McCoy]

National parks, he's, he's telling the truth when he says national parks are not on the table. Okay, sorta. But if you look at a place like Yellowstone national park just as an example. Cause that's what he kept saying. No one's trying to sell Yellowstone. Well, the ethos of the park is to preserve this land for the sake of the animals and the American people. Right? Well, the park is at like 8,000ft in the mountains. It's below zero for a significant portion of the year. That park itself is actually just summer range for the most part for these animals. So Greater Yellowstone ecosystem is about the size of Ohio. And that part he's absolutely trying to sell. So the the animals are going to lose their winter range, I guess Yellowstone. He's not going to pave over a geyser, but the animals themselves are going to be cooked if, if this were to go through. And for anyone that doubts, you know, he's tried to say that he's only going to sell off this small percentage of public lands. That's kind of the central claim he's making. But note that it always his language.

[Sean]

It'S in between, just small amount is in between 2 and 3 million acres. Right. I think it's actually like 225 million to 285 million if I'm correct.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, that's the way I was reading it too, is the. It looks like he's trying to set a floor but no real ceiling. So the floor is this must be sold off and then the ceiling is these other 240 million acres are to be evaluated. At least that's what it looks like, which is setting the table for a sell off. And I know we'll talk more about this later, but we have processes in place for getting rid or the disposal of land already.

[Sean]

What are those? What do you mean, the disposal of land?

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, that's kind of the legal term that they use. It's really like transfer to a municipality or an organization for development and growth, things like that. That's covered under Flipma, which is the Federal Land Policy and management act in 1976. That thing is, is there. It kind of, it wrapped up a bunch of other older laws into one new one that set a multiple use mandate in place. And part of that multiple use allows, or part of that act allows for the disposal of lands. Like if a city needs to grow for some reason, like that's for example, that's how that ground in Las Vegas that they took Trump out of context on, I'm not sure if you saw that that ground got developed, it would have went through Flipmo, you know, so we can do this already.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah. You know, with me it's like, when does this end? Like, you know, Theodore Roosevelt preserved our land for, for the American people to hunt it, enjoy it, hike it, camp it, whatever, you know, whatever, whatever outdoor activity you want to do. And he did that because of this exact reason, right?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yes.

[Sean]

Capitalists, people, you know, the elites will buy up all the land and then there will be no public land left. That's why he did it. And now we're trying to change that. And the other reason I brought John Braxton is because more and more in the country, it seems like the American people. This just keeps happening more and more over time. I don't give a shit which administration it is. The American citizen is never heard. All we hear is these fucking politicians. And it's becoming more and more clear. I mean, you see polls about all the shit that's going on right now and how against people are against what's happening. And none of these politicians care, right? Almost none of them. No matter what the issue is, they just keep going against the people, the people that elected them in. And I'm just fed up, man. I am so fed up with this shit. But anyways, let me read you a quick intro. We'll get into the. Into the nuts and bolts of this whole thing here pretty soon. Braxton McCoy, a son of southern Utah, raised roping cattle, hunting elk and fishing with your grandfather with public lands is the backbone of your life. A combat veteran who survived a suicide bomber in Iraq, rebuilt your life at Walter Reed. And now you fight to keep America's public lands from being sold off. Author of the Glass Factory. Riding on the Mountains. Riding on the mountain during hunting season. You wrote it. On the mountain during hunting season. A guide and advocate leading hunts since 2015. In championing public land since 2016, declaring not one acre should be lost to privatization. A rancher and a horse trainer in Idaho, a patriot who sees these lands is bought with blood from Lewis and Clark to Teddy Roosevelt. And you're calling out anyone, even senators, who dares to auction them off. And like I said, the reason, the reason I found you was that that tweet from Jocko that said we need to pay attention to this. So I dug in and now here we are. And we've done some research on what Lee's doing and some of the other people that are involved that nobody knows about yet, I'm sure. And so we'll get into all that, but right off the bat, I want to talk about your ties to the land and a little bit of your patriotism, what you've done for the country and all that kind of stuff. So why does this mean so much to you.

[Braxton McCoy]

Man? I grew up. We were a poor family. We didn't have a lot of. It was common for a lot of people down there. I grew up on a small horse place. My old man trained horses and did electrical work to kind of keep make ends meet there. My grandpa was a plumber. His dad had been a dairyman and failed at that and ended up having to move to the city. But he was a big time outdoorsman. Him and all of his brothers, every one of his brothers enlisted as well. And so since birth, the thing that we got to enjoy the most as a family was public ground. We'd go out fishing and just to look at is nice too. One time I think I was about 12, we were up on the mountain and there was some moose down in this pond and my grandma wanted to get footage of it. So I got on the back of the four wheeler and she drove down there and I'm holding on trying to watch and these. It was a cow calf and they started chasing us. So I got like this, took this video of a cow calf chasing us when I'm like 12, bouncing on the back of this, you know, so just even little, little memories like that man, my grandpa, he was real good at tying flies. He's the best fisherman I ever seen. All of his brothers really, but he, he was a real good fisherman. We'd, we'd go down to the creeks and he'd get me set up and say, okay, I'm gonna go, you know, we'll see who catches the first fish. And I'd be out there casting away and then he'd go sit down and wait for a bug to land on him and catch and make sure it was the right bug that looked like they were eating. And then he'd get his fly box out, tie on and he'd start whacking fish. I think trying to maybe teach me a lesson that took 40 years to learn, but yeah, so it's like it's been my whole life and you know, I got family in the cattle industry and a lot of friends, you know, so a lot of time, day working as a kid, day working, go out and help move cows around or rope or doctor or whatever you need to do. Mostly for us it was just helping neighbors and then trying to get horses worked. Cause that was an income source.

[Sean]

Do ranchers use public land?

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh yeah, a ton of them do. And that's. I was gonna say, I always, I get all uncomfortable with the word rancher. My buddy and I have a beef opera or meat selling business. I don't consider myself a rancher. I cowboy, I guess. Horseman. I'm not. I think in order to be a rancher, it's gotta be your full time gig. What makes all your money. And it's really not that for me, but I do love it and I love cattle. And as far as ranchers using land. Yeah, man. In fact, a lot of small family ranches which are already struggling, they'll be broken by this, they're running some of them, not all, but some of them are running, like 90, 10 deeded to undead acreage. So, like 10% of their operation is on deeded acres and 90% is on public ground. Man.

[Sean]

You know, I want to move into some of your patriotism, too. I mean, you would die for this. You almost did die for this country.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And I mean, you know, the funny thing is, as you're getting attacked, I see you've been called a communist, you've been called all kinds of things. And, you know, you are a typical American who served your country, got blown up by an ied.

[Braxton McCoy]

You.

[Sean]

You have nothing to win. You have nothing personally to win for taking a stand against this now on the other side, I don't know for a fact, but, I mean, there's a lot to lose, a lot of money to lose by selling this off. I mean, what. Developers are gonna develop this land and all this stuff, so. And we'll get into all that in a little bit, but it's just. I wanna bring that out like you personally have nothing to gain, no financial incentive. You're not getting any land. You're not.

[Braxton McCoy]

You're.

[Sean]

You're not. You don't. I don't. You don't strike me as a person that wants to get famous or, you know, be. Be having Twitter wars. I mean, none of that. And you're just getting attacked for just protecting American people's interest and public land. And so I want to just. I want you to go through a little bit of your service, if you don't mind, to show people, you know, you did fight for this country. Did the people coming after you fight for the country?

[Braxton McCoy]

Isn't that interesting?

[Sean]

Yeah, it's always the way, right? Always the way, man.

[Braxton McCoy]

As a kid, I hated school, man. I wanted to be outside. I liked reading books. Other than that, I pretty much hated the rest of it. I like science stuff, but I didn't really care for school that much. I liked riding bulls and chasing girls and riding dirt bikes and kind of the typical American thing. And then 911 happened. And even though we all hated New York City, those are still our people. You know, it's more of a brotherly piss on you kind of thing, but if somebody else takes a swing, you want to take swing back. So I enlisted and ended up over in Ramadi in 0506 time frame. Oh, yeah, it was. Yeah, it was busy, man, for sure. That in typical kind of war, tons of guys have way more combat experience than me, you know, A few gunfights here and there, some sniper fire. We crashed a CH46 one time. The pilots called it a hard landing, but it felt like a damn crash to me. You know, we were like two minutes off this objective. And the 46, those things are like Vietnam War or Korean War era or something. And it got like an electrical fire or some kind of thing. And we ended up back and we made it all the way back to Fo Brahmadi and hit the plz, that big concrete one there. And then of course got right back on a bird and flew back and did the stupid mission. So that was kind of a lot of log pack security type bullshit too. You know, a handful of actual PSD stuff. But for the most part, they just tasked us. We were very generalized. You know, EOD needs a lift somewhere, someone's in a tick, you know, just kind of that sort of stuff. And then on the 5th of January, we were providing security for this Marine element that was. That was recruiting Iraqis in order to send them over to a different country to be trained up to be police officers. And my understanding as just an absolute idiot on the ground was, was that they were having a problem because they were trying to use Shia to police Sunni neighborhoods in Ramadi. And that was just not working out. So they said, okay, well, let's recruit some Sunnis and see if that might be a better gig. So that was kind of the idea. And on the third day. So the fifth would have been the fourth day, but on the third day, it was supposed to be the end. The recruitment drive was supposed to be done and over with, but there were so many people that had showed up that we were out until like midnight. And then we finally had to just send people home. And the catch is there were. There were not even any slots left. We were doing this for show at this point, and everybody knew it, but they were trying, you know, hearts and minds, all that shit. So they said, okay, we got to go out one more day. Well, they had only promised us three peaceful days. And it's Ramadi. In the beginning of 06, you could just about guarantee that you're going to have an issue. And the day before, either the day. Either the day before or the day before that, we had watched guys sit at a bus stop and never get on anything. Just watch us all day.

[Sean]

Silence.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, and we passed that up so we knew what was going on. And then so on the 5th, that morning, we go to S2 and get the brief. And the brief is like, hey, you need to be on the look for V beds, because they're going to attack you with a V bed. And he said, all right. And I even made the joke, we get in the trucks. And I was like, well, let's go get fucking blown up, dude. Because everybody knew we get there to this place called the glass factory. And it's just like what you would imagine. It's a factory. You've probably been there, and I haven't. Okay, there's. So it's just a kind of a. Looks like all the other factories over there, which are not all that different than ours, except for some architectural differences. But it has this wall around the sort of compound. And that wall has a big gate to let trucks in and then a man gate to let people in. And we were using the man gate to let the dudes through, the Iraqi dudes through, and then wand them and then send them in to be. Go through the recruitment process, jumping jacks and all that fun stuff. I got. I still got videos of that. And, well, we get there that morning to the man gate dude, and there is like a thousand Iraqis lined up at the door already. And these people. These are not a punctual people. So we. We called up and we're like, hey, this is a bad, really bad idea. And they said, basically, roger, continue mission. You know, like, all right. So I went and talked. I was Bravo team leader at this time, and I went and talked to my first line leader. His name is Johnny. And I was like, john, I don't want to put guys out there. This is stupid. And so he and I decided we would go out with our interpreter. We called him Carlos because we thought he looked like he was from Juarez rather than Iraq. So we go out with Carlos and just start asking questions. And pretty soon, this guy. And you know, just the typical stuff, like, why are you here on time? You know, why'd you get here early? The guys, they'd say, well, I just want a good opportunity at the job. Or a sheikh cleric told me to be here, and that is usually a tip off. And so I'm in the middle of talking to this dude, and another guy comes up, and he's, like, frantic, and he's yelling, and I know, like, 13 words in Arabic or whatever, and none of them are, like, very kind. So I'm trying. I can't tell what he's saying. Asking Carlos, man, tell me, help me out here. I have no idea. And he says he sees a bomb. And I said, okay, what kind of bomb? And he says, a Bomb with wires. So my brain immediately went to tripwire. No, he said grenade. I'm sorry, Grenade. That's what it was, grenade. That's how Carlos translated to me anyway. And so I'm thinking tripwire. So I radio up. We had internal comms and then external. So I radioed our team and was like, hey, don't come out here. There's a tripwire somewhere. You know, there's like a thousand Iraqis wandering around. You can barely keep these people. So I said, don't come out here. We're going to try to figure this out. And then within what feels like moments, a semi truck crashes through our concertina wire on the eastern perimeter. And then of course, everybody lights it up. You know, we've told the V bed, everyone's thinking, that's a big ass V bed, you know, so we take this guy gets taken out. And now there's Iraqis running all over the place. You know, they think they're stuck between literally a rock wall and a gunfight. So they're going apeshit. And we've got this truck and driver to deal with. And so now we actually need help. And not too long after that, Lt. Col. McLaughlin shows up and a couple of dog handlers. So Lt. Col. Mack comes out with his PSD team to start trying to help us get people organized. There's a fucking Lieutenant colonel out there with a bunch of fives and sixes and fours. You know, he's a very, very brave man. And these dog handlers were marines. And we had done a few, like, joint stuff with those guys. And they said, hey, do you want us to go get our dog? And Sergeant Can's dog was sleeping on the hood of my truck. I was like, yeah, go get that sucker up, dude. So he comes out and now we're getting these people back in lines. And we needed them in like three different lines. One, do you have a government id? Do you have no government id? Do you have a government id? But you worked for the bath party. Because we can't employ, you know, Bremer made it so we couldn't employ bath people. So we needed to kind of filter them through quickly once they went in. And right as we start to get everything pretty stabilized, I hear. And I'm on the radio actually with my medic, and I hear Bruno start growling. And I remember I just looked up under my K pot and he's got this dude's arm in his mouth, this Iraqi dude. And then next thing is just two bright white flashes like boom, boom. And I wake up face down. I feel like I'm not even. I don't even know if I was fully conscious conscious, really. And face down, and I know I am really up, and I. I can see organs and stuff right here, like, kind of under me. But my arm, the only thing I could really move very well was my right elbow. And I got myself propped up on my right elbow and was looking, and I thought, holy. I got blown in half, you know? So I. My left humerus had been broken, but my left hand worked, so I was, like, rubbing this organ through my fingers, trying to see if I could feel it. And I don't know, dude. I felt anatomy. I don't know if you can even feel organs like that, right? But I'm sitting here and then I hear Johnny screaming my name just like everybody else. Anybody with a McCoy or Mac, whatever. It's just Mack, right? And so I'm hearing mack, Mac. And then next thing I know, I can feel, like, a little weight off of my back and then a little more weight, and then these organs kind of pulled out and I could see the top of my hips. I was like, at least, you know, at least I got hips right, but I couldn't really see much more. And then they rolled me over, and when they rolled me over, that's when I knew my legs were totally screwed. They didn't. Like, they were rolling like this, you know, wobbling. And what had happened is I. Essentially. Everything that didn't have armor on it got hit by ball bearings. And my right femur was busted in two places, my left in three. My left tibia, my left hip was broken in two spots, my right hip in one. My radius and ulnar were broken. All the bones in my right hand, my right median nerve was transected right here at my wrist. My left humerus was broken. I had brain injury, busted ribs, broken back. And I was laying there bleeding. And, you know, the first thought you have is after seeing stuff, you think, there's just absolutely no fucking way I'm gonna live, you know? So then you start doing that stupid shit, like, you know, tell my mother I love her and that kind of stuff. And then my medic gets there and he starts cutting my pants off to try to assess, right? And pretty soon he goes, dude, you're not wearing any underwear, you know? And I was like, fuck you, dude. It's cold. Okay? So we're trying to have as much fun as we can about it, but I think pretty much everybody thought I was gonna die, including me and Every time. So your femurs. Your glutes are so strong that when your femurs break that bad, they contract. They pull together. So my femurs are, like, as long as they were wide, which in the end, might have saved my life, really, from bleeding out. But I could see every time I would. My heart would beat, water would. Or blood and kind of pus and stuff would come out of all these different holes, like if you had a water bottle, and squeeze it rhythmically. And so they were trying to get that stuff patched up, and they pretty. You know, I think they realized pretty quickly that they just had to get me on a medevac or I wasn't gonna make it. And the medevac they had available was a five ton. So they threw me on a litter and then put me on this five ton. And some sergeant major, in his infinite wisdom had put speed bumps on the road all the way from Ogden Gate to Charlie Med. So, you know, those five tons, it's like riding on a brick already. Yeah. And then so just bouncing back there, rattling. I feel my bones inside. You know, in my book, I think I described it as like a bag of wrenches, you know, Damn. And they get me to Charlie Med, and that's where they established, you know, started getting blood transfusions going in my arms. And then they put me on a bird to try to medevac me to Balad, which is where you want to go. You want to get to an air force base instead of an army one. Right. But we got in the air, and then I was bleeding out too much, so we had to stop in TQ to quantum. You stop there to get more blood. And then again, we had to stop in Fallujah. They had a. Holy shit, man. Yeah. And they had a trauma med center there. And so they started. That's where they put the PICC line in my neck, I think. So at one point, I had, like, eight quarts of blood going in, but I was developing compartment syndrome in my legs, so they were swelling internally, and they were doing everything they could to try to save my legs, you know, so Fallujah, they got me in traction splints, and I hadn't had any pain meds yet because my blood pressure was so low. They couldn't hit me with morphine, you know, so they grabbed my legs and they gave me, like, a rag to bite on. And, man, the pain was intense enough that I was in and out anyway, I think. But I bit down on that, and they got my leg on those traction Splints and stretched them out. And then they took a. A knife and cut. Obviously a surgical knife, not like a buck knife or something, but they split me from knee to hip on both sides all the way up, and then put wound vacs in to try to peel that swelling and infection and that kind of shit out. And then I went from there to Balad and then from Ballard to Landstool, and then from Landstool to Walter Reed.

[Sean]

Holy shit, man.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, it was pretty intense.

[Sean]

How long were you at Walter Reed?

[Braxton McCoy]

The. Let's see. Like, for three or four months. The. The army put together a program at that time called cbhco, which was like Community Based Healthcare Organization or something like that, one of these army acronyms. And there was. What was really happening is there were so many dudes that were wounded at the time that they have. They were running out of beds, you know, so they were trying to get guys once they were eligible for outpatient care. They were trying to get them back to their hometowns for civilian hospitals just to offload. You know, they said it was because they thought dudes would heal better, and maybe they really did think that, but I think it was probably because they were running out of space. So I was there for like, three months, and then I did outpatient in Utah for another year and a half or so. I think something like that. Another few surgeries and rehab, like, four times a week, you know, physical rehab. And then they retired me in August of. I think it was August of 07. It was 07, but I think August of 07.

[Sean]

Damn.

[Braxton McCoy]

Shit.

[Sean]

You go through all that to be called a communist from politicians? Nice.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, man. Another.

[Sean]

It's real classy.

[Braxton McCoy]

I try to not say this too much because it's such a heated thing, but another thing is, man, I. I volunteer as a sheriff's deputy now. I got in a gunfight last year for my community. I know.

[Sean]

I heard that.

[Braxton McCoy]

You're gonna call me a fucking communist, dude.

[Sean]

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[Braxton McCoy]

When somebody asked me how did we end up with public land? My answer is conquest, war treaties, purchase. That's how we did it. If you go all the way back to the Articles of Confederation, you can see this idea emerge that the people of the United States who just fought this war to free themselves of a king, own this land. Now there were so at the time, Georgia, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts. Those states had made claims on land that went all the way to the Mississippi River. So that means that South Carolina, Maryland, places like that are now landlocked. So they're debating these issues, trying to put together a government while we're winning this war over here. And those seven states who were landlocked were saying, hey, wait a minute, this is our blood and treasure on the line, too. You don't get to just claim all of this extra territory and lock us out of the potential for growth and development and all of that. So the agreement they come to is that we will design state borders and put the rest that will cede these other states, colonies at the time will cede that land to the federal government in the public trust for the betterment of this nation moving forward. So that concession was made at the birth of this nation. So that's the first war. Then you go from there to stuff like the Louisiana Purchase. I don't know if you heard, but Napoleon was fighting a whole bunch of people over there, needed some money, and he finally said, you know what? How about I just sell you this whole thing for $15 million? So we buy that. And then you've got other pieces like Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the War of 1812, which eventually ended up with land being ceded to us, the whole 49th parallel stuff from the British government and both Spanish and Mexico. So basically, war and conquest from that point is how we won this land back. I think that's a really important point to start. So it's not me that's doing the blood and soil thing. It's the people who founded this country. So if you're going to call me a communist, I guess you're going to have to go back to the founding generation and called them communists because that's what they thought. Lewis and Clark, no one really knew what we had bought in this Louisiana Purchase. We just knew that it was a good deal. And we had just doubled the size of our country, which seems like a pretty good thing. And they did it for $15 million. It's not like it was a huge expense. Now, we were pretty broke at the time, but either way. So Jefferson establishes this Corps of Discovery to put him out on a grand expedition. And he trusts his friend, Meriwether Lewis with this. Meriwether Lewis then recruits his friend from the army, William Clark, and they put together a team and go out and what they're looking for is a northwest passage. They wanted to find a water source that would run from the Pacific to the Atlantic. So basically, kind of, in a way, trying to solve the problem that we later solved with railroads, right so these guys go out. In my opinion, it's one of the bravest things anyone's ever done. I mean, you have some people thought there might be freaking dinosaurs out there. They had no idea what was still extant in the wilderness. And so they go out and get on this boat, about 50 people or so, I can't remember the exact number of people. And they start pulling this boat up this Missouri river, having no clue what's going to be, you know, at the end of it. The first winter they winter in Mandan, North Dakota and they're learning. They're, you know, meeting natives and learning some things from them, making trades with them, scaring the shit out of them with our technology, you know, stuff like that. Trying to make peace where they can see who they can make peace with and who they're going to have to fight as we institute this whole manifest destiny idea. And then the next year they go from there to essentially the Rocky Mountains, in fact. So on the way through there in what is now modern day Montana, they find themselves up against their very first grizzly bear. And I just kind of love this story because Merriweather Lewis, if you read his journals, he's like bragging in there at different points about how he's killed 300 bears. Like, I ain't afraid of no damn bear. You know, all this. And then he's out with a few other guys and they run into this bear that he describes as a white bear. You know, sometimes Grizz can look kind of silvery backed and there's two and they're watching him and they sneak up to about 100 yards and him and this private both shoot these two bears. And anyone who's black bear hunted before knows like what you would expect for the most part is that bear to run away. Well, grizzly is a whole different animal. And the Indians have been trying to tell them this. You know, they called it like the great white bear and stuff, like be careful with the great white bear. And well, they shoot these things and they immediately charge Adam. So they, you know, these are, they're shooting flintlocks. So it's not like they can just empty a mag into them. So they turn and run. And it gets to the point where Lewis has to jump into the Missouri river to try to get away from this bear. Chased him for like 80 yards before it had, you know, and it get that one that chased him, gets all the way to the river and then finally starts to tire and doesn't come in the water after him anymore. The other one had ran toward them and then died. It was hit more in the heart. But then they go back and do, like, examine these bears, and he realizes how big they are. And then he writes about how different this place is and how wild and difficult it's going to be to tame. You know, if the bears are this much harder out here, then what else are we going to find? And then the one that he. That chased him, he'd hit it through both lungs.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, man. They're. Grizz are. No. For sure. Yeah. So I. And even in my own life, I enjoy. I like just looking at Grizz, but I take them pretty seriously. Yeah. Yeah. So that's. That's kind of where this stuff starts. And then, you know, of course, eventually they make it back. Plenty of adventures along the way. And report back to Jefferson like, hey, this is what we found. There is no Northwest Passage, but there's all this other stuff. And in the meantime, that land that had been ceded to the federal government, they were using some of it to pay off soldiers. If you were a private, I think you get 100 acres. You know, if you were an enlisted man, you could get like 100 acres. And then if you were, I think, a colonel or above, you could do as many as 500 acres. And they were kind of starting to expand in that way. Another thing Jefferson realized, I think was one of the. One of the most intelligent or wise parts of the idea of Manifest destiny is he understood that we did not have a military that could conquer the amount of terrain that we had. He knew it was not going to be possible. So the next best resource is your American people. You know, the. The average person is pretty brave and durable, too. So we're trying to move them out west and establish new states, provinces, towns, villages, all this kind of thing, farms and that. So that happens for, you know, another little while. And then just to kind of give a really broad overview of how the lands ended up in the situations they're in, then we do things like homestead acts and timber acts and mineral acts and these kinds of things, and we put them in place and say, go out and conquer more. We've got more ground to take care of. And what happens really quickly with the homestead act type stuff is the further west you get, the more arid and austere the ground gets. So now we've got to go from 160 acre homestead acts to, you know, 300 or 380 or whatever it was, and then all the way up to, like, sections of land because it takes more land to be able to make a living on. Then we end up, again, I'm just giving you a very broad. Then we end up with a timber bearing problem. It wasn't just, you know, the robber baron concept. It wasn't just timber barons. There was, you know, people that were over grazing and things like that too. But to speak straight to the timber baron thing, they were going out and just clear cutting entire forests. You know, they're trying to make money, man. And there was this idea in America, you see it with stuff like the buffalo too, where this was a totally endless resource that you could never actually extinguish. So I don't even think they were that terrible of people. I really think that they thought there was going to be another timber section and another. And you know, by the time they got to the end, perhaps this other stuff would have been grown back. I think is kind of their mindset. But that was not what was happening. And then enter a guy called Panoche. And I could be saying his name wrong, but he was friends with Teddy and they're part of the Boone and Crockett Club that Teddy put together. And his dad was a timber baron. And instead of passing that business down to his son to go do the same thing, he kind of had this ethos of, you're going to fix the stuff that I screwed up because I overdid this. So he sends him off to forestry school in like Florida or not Florida, I'm sorry, France, Germany. And he goes and learns about forestry management. And then he comes back and ends up working with Teddy on the preservation of these forests. And this is after, of course, the Forest act was put in place, I think in 1891. So we'd had a couple of presidents who'd made some national forests before Teddy, but Teddy's the one that Teddy and Panoche come in and they're the ones that really get after. I think they established like 100 national force to be preserved. And another thing I love about those two is they, they both were like men's men. They loved the box. They would go down in the basement and fight each other all the time. And then they go back up and just like work on policy. It's like a barracks, you know what I mean? So like, this guy's not a pussy, you know? And I guess I would say he's not a communist either. And this is kind of where the ethos of preservation and protection starts, in my opinion. And that's again, a broad overview.

[Sean]

That's good that's good. How much US land in acres is public? Do you know?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, it depends on how. So a thing they like to do is use the term federal land. Now that is a thing certain politicians really like to do is use terms that have a colloquial meaning and a more legalistic meaning. So they'll use terms like federal land because that is how it's written in a lot of these acts. But when he's. Specifically him and some others, when they use it, what they're trying to do is get the American mind to conflate military bases, Indian reservations, things like that, with public accessible ground so that you kind of think of it all as one thing, and it's really not. You see this in that red map that everybody likes to post. Have you seen that one? It's white and then it's just all this red. Well, they've got national parks and Indian reservations and military bases wrapped up in that red map. I think that's the, you know, the main takeaway there. Sorry, I got myself distracted. What was the actual question?

[Sean]

How much. How much public land is there in acres in the US?

[Braxton McCoy]

BLM's got about 250, I think. I think 245 million acres. Forest is like 130 or 150. National parks is like 90. US sports or USF. The fish and wildlife stuff is right around 120, I think.

[Sean]

All millions.

[Braxton McCoy]

Millions, yes. Yeah. And those are the ones. And then you've got monuments, but monuments are wrapped up in forest or, you know, they're wrapped up in other agencies for the most part. So that's kind of the basic layout of the total acreage. I think it ends up around 600 million. Wow. Yeah. But don't let them conflate military bases and Indian reservations.

[Sean]

Is that. Is that what they're converting, military bases and Indian reservations?

[Braxton McCoy]

No, they can't touch. They know they can't touch Indian reservations for sure.

[Sean]

That's what I've thought. And I didn't think they could touch any of it, to be honest with you.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, we do have processes for that. This is conspiracy stuff in my brain. This is not anything. This is just an opinion and a thing to think about here, though. If a full rollback, to use a term, were to be made on public lands, I think reservations would sue the government. A fear there is. I don't know if you know this, but we broke a lot of treaties with these people. And if you look at the ruling in Oklahoma, I think is last year, the year before The Supreme Court essentially ruled that 40% of Oklahoma now belongs to the tribes. And now they're trying to work out exactly what to do with that. You know, if you've got a farm there, do you, do you pay your taxes to the tribes now or how does that work? So that's being fought. And I think that you could see, you could see stuff like that happen in the west easily. Now the conspiracy side would be, well, if you're a developer, that sounds great. A lot of these res need money, so you're just going to buy it from the res now. Who cares? Right. And again, that's conspiracy. Mm.

[Sean]

Makes sense. So how long, how long has this been? How long has this push been?

[Braxton McCoy]

Mike Lee's 2010 campaign was already talking about this kind of stuff, but it's been going for before that. It's not just him, there's lots of other people. So it's. None of this is new. I think they've already lost three lawsuits trying to push for essentially the same thing in different ways.

[Sean]

2010, was it the same? What I understand is they want to build affordable housing on public land because of the housing crisis. But if I remember right, in 2010, land housing was.

[Braxton McCoy]

It's like a fire sale, especially around Utah. It took a little longer for the 2008, 2009 thing to hit southern Utah, the more rural areas. So, yeah, it's never really been about affordable housing in my opinion. Also, this is another one of those terms that seems to be being used in kind of a legalistic way and also a colloquial way. Like my understanding as a layperson is that affordable housing, Section 8 kind of stuff comes with other stipulations, like there has to be amenities for this stuff, mental health centers, roads, bridges, infrastructure, food. They have to have easy ready access to food kind of, in a sense, the 15 minute walkable city thing applies to that, in a sense. And then affordable. That sounds like, hey, my kid can't afford a house right now. Build a house that he can afford. And that's the part they're trying to sell people on. And I don't see, I don't see how that's actually gonna come out of any of this.

[Sean]

Where, where is the. Like, how many different states are involved in this? How many different.

[Braxton McCoy]

In the push, in the push, it's.

[Sean]

Between 2 and 3 million acres.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, it would affect, for the most part, it would affect the 11. The 11 Western states that have the most public land in them as far as who's pushing it hardest. It's usually Utah, has been since forever.

[Sean]

What do the people think?

[Braxton McCoy]

The people hate it. I mean, depending on where you source your numbers, this is either a 75, 25 issue or a 80, 20 issue. I mean, the people hate it. They've never wanted it.

[Sean]

Where, what, where is the land located that they want to build all this stuff?

[Braxton McCoy]

I haven't seen an actual map. I've seen a million map.

[Sean]

Is it right outside of the city or is it far away?

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, that's the claim that's being made, but we already have a process in place for land that's near cities or needs to be developed. So I don't. I would like to see the map. You know, one person could speculate there's this whole corner crossing fight happening in the west right now. And are you familiar with the concept of corner crossing? No. As we were developing the west, one of the ways we paid for the railroads was to give them land. What that ended up with is land that looks like an actual checkerboard. So they'll be a chunk of land here that is privately owned and then a chunk of public and so on and so forth. And it builds this checkerboard looking pattern. Some states were trying to block sportsmen and others from crossing over the corner between those two chunks of land. And the landowner was saying, essentially, you're violating my airspace by doing that. In some states, I think you own about 200ft of the air above your house, which is probably a good thing. It should be illegal to fly a drone over my house. Right, but that's, that's not really what you're doing. You're crossing, you know, I guess half of your body or something is crossing it. So that fight is going on and it looks like sportsmen are going to have a big win on this thing. And I imagine that the landowners who own those sections that have been trying to keep people out are not very happy about this potential win for the common man. So that's one person who or one group type of people that I would say stands to benefit from this a lot. Then they can just swoop up those sections that are locked in between their land.

[Sean]

Are those the sections that are going up for sale? Supposedly going up for sale, man, the.

[Braxton McCoy]

Language seems to have changed so many times that I don't. It's really. It's getting hard to argue with because it keeps. The goalposts keep getting moved. But I would say yeah, for sure. Another weird thing about that is we've done land swaps with those kind of People before. In fact, I know of one in a different state. I can't and don't want to out the person in the group involved in it. But it would probably benefit both sportsmen and this wealthy landowner if this were to happen because their, their place is giant. It would be cut in half and now there would just be two contiguous tracks of land because they would swap with each other across the board. It would have to be approved during a public comment period. Like public input has to be involved. And if the public says, yeah, let's make that swap, that's better for us both, then good. So things like this can already happen.

[Sean]

Interesting, interesting. What are some of the. What, what are the. What is this public land being used for right now?

[Braxton McCoy]

Hunting, fishing, recreating. I think the word scenic is actually used too. So just for looking at. Which is a value in my opinion unto itself. Hiking, camping, looking at the freaking stars. You know, it's one of the least light polluted areas in the world. It's a place where the everyday American can go live like a king used to, essentially. Like we're all little petty kings out there. We can kind of do whatever we want. And some people will say, well, it costs you money to get on. That's okay at national parks or developed campgrounds, but on undeveloped ground doesn't cost you anything. You can just go out and use it whenever you want. Even if you live in Hoboken, New Jersey, you know, that's what it's being used for. That is some of the stuff that it's being used for. There's a multiple use mandate in place right now under flpma, which is the Federal Land and Policy Management Act. What that multiple use mandate guarantees is the preservation of the land for the use for its own value and also for the use of the American people. So for recreating grazing extraction in the past, I would argue from a conservative right wing perspective that a lot of the managers within these agencies have stood in the way of parts of that multiple use. You can just imagine someone saying, why I want to bid on this piece of timber. Here's our reason why we think this will fit within Flipma. And I want to go through that process and then it gets stalled by bureaucrats within an agency. So I can understand the frustration because I think Flipma gets abused in a lot of ways under like NEPA and others.

[Sean]

What is Flipma?

[Braxton McCoy]

Federal Land and Policy Management Act. But it has been abused for sure. But it's also been used. Well, I mean, guys are still out Grazing. You know, some of them maybe not as long as they want to. And there's probably strong arguments in some of these cases for being able to graze a little more than they're grazing now, but it's. They're at least out there grazing. Guys are still out there hunting, they're still out there fishing. You know, they're still out there with their family. They. Timber extraction, mining, oil extraction. All of that is still happening on public lands. Perhaps not the scale that everybody wants, but it is happening. Another thing that we have in place that a lot of people don't know about, that I actually think is terrible in a lot of ways, is you can hard mineral claims. My understanding is that that old law that goes clear Back to, like 1871 is still in place, and they think it was the Hard Minerals Act. I can't remember the exact name, but it. Within that act, it establishes that anyone, including a foreigner, can come here. And if they find hard minerals and get a claim approved, they can mine it. And under that system, the federal government gets nothing from it, whereas in other extractionary processes, they get a percentage. So I think on minerals like lithium, I think the federal government gets a sub 10% as far as revenue sharing goes. I think the states on those same things get something like 4%. Don't quote me on all these numbers, but it's something like that, the revenue sharing process. And a lot of these mines are foreign people. You know, I think that's a real problem that should be addressed, but nobody seems to want to address that.

[Sean]

You mentioned something about putting refugee camps on the land too.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, there's a whole shitload of money going into refugee resettlement in the West. If you go to Randoland on Twitter, you can look at these grants yourself. I mean, it's like 10 million, 4 million, 12 million, all for different refugee resettlement. So when I hear affordable housing. I'm sorry, I guess I'm a conspiracy theorist, but my alarm bells start triggering. Mm.

[Sean]

I mean, there's something to it, right? I mean, you're getting attacked for speaking out. I mean, how. How are you. How are you getting attacked? Why is it coming after you?

[Braxton McCoy]

In some ways, I don't know. I. I was told that they hired a firm to dig into me, dig dirt up on me or whatever.

[Sean]

Who's they?

[Braxton McCoy]

I was told specifically it was. I don't want to get sued over here, but I was told specifically so, allegedly here, that it was Mike Lee's camp that did that. You know whether that's true? Or not, I don't know. How am I going to confirm that? If you're any good at digging into somebody, you probably don't call them and tell them you're doing it, you know, so that's one way. And then, I don't know, it sounds like you got some calls.

[Sean]

Oh, yeah, we got, we got some, we got some calls, that's for sure. Like I said, that's how I was like, oh, man, this is, we must be over the target here because a lot of people are telling me, don't do this interview, don't do it. But, but like I said now then when that happens, I feel like I have to do it, but I feel like it's my duty to do it. And, but what, what are some of the, I mean, so it's affordable housing, potential refugee camps, Section 8 housing. What else? Anything else?

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, they're trying to say the Section 8 thing might not be in play, but the director of HUD said as much just a few months ago. You know, he straight up said, we want to build 7 million homes. That's what he said.

[Sean]

7 million.

[Braxton McCoy]

That was the term. And if you look at numbers, man, say 7 million and call it 3 people to a home. So 21 million people. Well, there's 500,000 rough or 600,000 people in Wyoming. Montana's got about a million. Idaho's got like 1.8. Utah's got like 3.5. So you, you're going to put 21 million people in there. I think there's something like around 200,000 voters in Wyoming. How many do you think it would take to flip that state? 50,000? The number sure as hell is not a million. I know that you put a million people even in a state like Utah, Utah, they voted this last, don't quote me on these hard numbers, but they voted something like 55, 45. And that's what Trump, who is a once in a lifetime figure politician, he's extremely popular. So how red versus blue are they now with all this growth? And these states have already doubled in population since the year 2000. I think Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Arizona have all doubled. Nevada as well have all doubled since like the year 2000. And if you went to an old local, ask them if they think things have gotten better, I mean.

[Sean]

Oh yeah, I hear it all the time, especially after Covid, every time I go out west. That's, that's what, that's what they're bitching about, the California people, every single time. Yeah, but Montana, Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, literally Texas. Everywhere I go, that's what they bitch about, you know, is we're being invaded by California. But man, I want to talk about. Actually, let's take a quick break and then we'll pick up Join me for our first ever live stream debrief hosted exclusively on Vigilance Elite Patreon. We'll unpack the China Taiwan conflict, reveal insights from our Dubai trip with GBRS groups jcal, and break down the Iran Israel conflict's impact on everyday citizens. Stream it for free on July 1, 6pm Central Time on Vigilance Elite Patreon. Have you ever browsed in incognito mode? I do it all the time. It's a great way to cut down on annoying ads, but it's probably not as incognito as you think. A famous search engine recently settled a $5 billion lawsuit after being accused of secretly tracking users in incognito mode. In fact, all your online activity is still 100% visible to a ton of third parties unless you use ExpressVPN. Without ExpressVPN, these third parties could still see every website you visit. ExpressVPN reroutes 100% of your traffic through secure and encrypted servers, so third parties cannot see your browsing history. ExpressVPN hides your IP address. Just fire up the app and click one button to get protected and it works on all devices. I have to research a lot of things for the show and I don't want to be tracked by anyone. So protect your online privacy today by visiting expressvpn.com SRS that's E X P R-E-S-S vpn.com SRS and you could get an extra four months for free. Expressvpn.com SRS the news just doesn't stop. Between the national debt and the economic uncertainty, it's hard to know what to do. But if you look above the noise, you'll see many high net worth individuals and central banks are stockpiling gold. In fact, gold has broken another record, climbing past $3,500 an ounce. I still remember when it was under $2,000 an ounce just a while ago. It's clear too that now is the time to learn more about how gold and silver can help you. So reach out to my partners over at Goldco. They're a great award winning company I trust and They've got over 7,000 five star reviews so you know you're working with the best in the industry. Visit SeanLikesGold.com to get a free 2025 gold and silver kit. And you'll also learn about their unlimited bonus silver offer if you qualify. It's a great way to get started. Go to SeanLikesGold.com that's SeanLikesGold.com Performance may vary. You should always consult with your financial and tax professional work boots that are as comfy as sneakers. I didn't think it was possible either until I found Brunt work boots. They're like I'm walking on a cloud right out of the box. And they deliver the protection and durability you need on the job site. The best selling Marin and Omen work boots from Brunt. Check every box. They're lightweight, slip and oil resistant, heat resistant, electrical hazard rated, and so much more. Join over 500,000 other Brunt Boot wearers and Brunt offers a full range of high performance gear. Built for tough jobs. From heavy duty work pants to weather resistant jackets, Brunt designs reliable workwear to keep you protected in any condition. Brunt didn't just make a durable work boot. They reinvented comfort for the hardest workers out there. For a limited time, our listeners get $10 off at Brunt by using code SRS at checkout. Just head to bruntworkware.com and use code SRS and you're all set. Even better, Brunt lets you try all their products on the job. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. All right, Braxton, we're back from the break. I forgot to give you something at the beginning. Everybody gets a gift. Yeah, I was getting, I was pissing myself off by going through all this.

[Braxton McCoy]

Thank you.

[Sean]

Vigilance Lead Gummy bears. Legal in all 50 states. Just candy.

[Braxton McCoy]

Cool.

[Sean]

Going to feel weird after you.

[Braxton McCoy]

Thank you.

[Sean]

Sugar high. But yeah, so you know, I saw this. Everything seems to be like very vague on this. And, and like I just watched this thing on Charlie Kirk's where Lee was on, he called in and they were talking about map 444, which actually 444 is a big number to me. I think that that's, I think that that's how God speaks to me. Is the number 4, 4, 4. And just saw this clip this morning. But it was, it was saying that the fear mongers are using map 444. But the reality is it's map 443. But it doesn't seem like there's any clear clarification on what exact land. Now he did say it was Adjacent to, basically adjacent to towns or places that are occupied with people and that it made it seem that it was right outside of town. But I mean my fear is when does this end? Like the minute we do that, then it goes on and then it goes on and then we do start getting into the national parks. I want to know what the financial incentives are here because the people seem to be clearly speaking up saying no, this isn't what we want to do. And you know, another thing that came to my mind just on the break is I just interviewed really good guy. His name's Augustus Dorico. He's doing cloud seeding, which is another super controversial topic, right? But he had said in his interview that I believe he said within 10 years all the aquifers out west will be run dry. There's not enough water out there. So where are they going to get the water to bring in 7 million homes when all the aquifers there are going to be depleted within 10 years? But how are they going to, how are they going to do the water?

[Braxton McCoy]

I have asked this question multiple times and I don't get an answer. So I guess let me know if you get one. There isn't water. I mean clear back to when John Wesley Powell first surveyed it, they knew there was no water. He was writing back saying, look man, this is the. Much of the territory out west is just not suitable for agriculture and things like that. It just isn't. It's too dry. Utah is the second driest state in the union. I think their average annual precept is around. Precipitation rate is around 12 inches. The only one drier than that is Nevada. If you look at the Colorado river system, I think LAKE Mead's down 150ft right now. They're getting to a point from what I've heard, they're getting to a point where they're now starting to worry about issues with drawing power from the hydroelectric dams. If they keep. I think in 2026 the Colorado River Compact is supposed to have an update. So percentages will change, percentages are drawn from each will change. I was at my in laws a couple weeks ago and I was watching local news. There was a 20 minute piece about how there's just no. They need to build homes around Washington County, St. George, that kind of stuff. And there's just no place to do it, you know, we don't have room, you know, et cetera. Clearly trying to sell this bill to people. It was a realtor and a politician for the most part talking and then Maybe a sob story from some person that probably moved there from California, whose kid can't buy a house, which I'm receptive to, man, home prices are ridiculous in the West. So I, I get that argument, but the realtor was saying things like, if I built, if I could get 1500 new homes in this area, I could have them sold before they were done being built. You know, stuff like that. Obviously, real estate developers would enjoy that. Realtors would enjoy that. But then the water question comes up, and even in this piece, there's just some weird vagaries. They say, oh, we're gonna build six new reservoirs down here. Like, okay, well, you can build a dam, but you have to have water to fill the reservoir.

[Sean]

I mean, Utah, Utah specifically knows this because when I interviewed Augustus, Utah is one of the states that is. Is they're worried that the salt lake is going to dry up.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, right.

[Sean]

And so they have him, cloud seeding, trying to bring water into that valley. And I can't remember the other states that are working with him on this, but all of the western states are worried about the water supply. The other thing is, if we're talking about affordable housing, then why aren't we fixing cities like Baltimore, Washington, D.C. st. Louis, Chicago? I mean, we have affordable housing all over the place, and it's a disaster. It's a disaster. So why are we just putting new sections of it all over the map when we could just fix what we already have? I mean, you see these dilapidated buildings all over the place redevelop that, you know, and so there has to be some kind of a financial incentive, I would think, for. For this hard of a push. Plus all the pushback I got about having, about bringing you on the show, I mean, that was like a siren going off in my head. And so I wanted to. I wanted to ask you about this gentleman. We kind of looked into him a little bit, but Clint Brown, the president of American Path Initiative, 501C4. I'd never even heard of a 501C4 before, but apparently, apparently it is a organization that you don't have to report all of the money. So it's a great way to send dark money to whoever you want. And from what I. Jeremy, can you give us a quick lowdown on Clint Brown?

[Braxton McCoy]

As you said, he's the president of American Path Initiative. He's also responsible for helping get Cash Patel through his FBI Director nomination in the Senate.

[Sean]

And he was a.

[Braxton McCoy]

He worked in the Senate with Mike Lee for over a year.

[Sean]

He worked in The Senate with Mike Lee. Is Mike Lee attached to this President of American Path Initiative 501c4?

[Braxton McCoy]

He's a political candidate. He can't be attached to a. To a 501C4.

[Sean]

He's got. He's got real ties with this guy though. Right. And it'd be a great way. He has worked with him in the past. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Do you know about this guy?

[Braxton McCoy]

I've had Twitter interactions with him. That's about all I know. Besides what you guys just said, I guess. Maybe.

[Sean]

Did he make a Burner X account to come after you?

[Braxton McCoy]

I could never prove that, but it was funny. This rando account was only responding to my tweets and it was like calling me gay and shit, you know, doing like 20 year old Brokeback Mountain jokes, that kind of thing. Like, you think I haven't heard that shit? You know, like, what the fuck, dude? The thing about that dude, when they do that, it drives me crazy too, because here's some film written by some Skittles person, like, however many years ago that's trying to denigrate our culture and then we've absorbed it into our own lexicon, you know, that annoys me, but other than that, that's not new. Well, this account, eventually, after I went and looked at it and looked at all the replies, eventually I just said, is this you, Clint? And it replied, no, which is a funny way. I think if I was running a burner, I'd probably. And again, I don't know. Right. I'm just speculating. I have no idea. I could never prove this, not even necessarily attempting to, but I would probably say something like, who the fuck is Braxton? Or whatever. I'd probably be smarter about it than to just write no. And then it deleted itself right after that.

[Sean]

Oh, the whole account disappeared.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, I took screenshots because I thought it was really weird.

[Sean]

Interesting. We'll put those screenshots up. You got them?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, they're on my phone.

[Sean]

Perfect. Have they identified the. Actually, let's put in his LinkedIn as well.

[Braxton McCoy]

We'll.

[Sean]

We'll put a screenshot of this guy's LinkedIn on there just so people know I'm not just making shit up out of thin air. But. But they identified the developers or is BlackRock involved? BlackRock's buying up neighborhoods at a time. And you know, who. Who are the developers that are going to develop this land if it. If it does get sold? I mean, who would it be sold to? Would it be sold to the developer?

[Braxton McCoy]

These are all Questions I'd like answers to. I don't know. I know that when Senator Lee has accused me of lying to his constituents, I have posted underneath a list of his donors. And he said I was being paid. No one's paying me. I mean, no one. I've never been paid for public land advocacy, ever. I mean, people have. Organizations have bought flights, you know, but no one's ever paid me for it. I've always done a volunteer. In fact, I bought my own flights down here just because I thought it was so important. Right. It's like, I'm not. I don't mean that anything by that other than to say no one's paying me. So when he has said that, I have posted underneath, here's a list of your top donors. No one's paying me to lie. Who's paying you to lie? And no one ever responds. And on that list, you've got stuff like Club for Growth, Microsoft, Blackstone. I can't remember what the others are, but I got those on my phone as well. So Blackstone, from what I understand, is, you know, private equity equity type stuff that invests in this kind of thing. I think Utah is fourth in the nation for private equity investment in single family homes. So I don't think it'd be too difficult to start drawing lines if a person wanted to or knew how. I mean, I'm an idiot. I don't know how to do this stuff. I barely. The only reason I do any good on Twitter is it's just an app that is really easy to use. I'm not good at tech, man.

[Sean]

How did you get involved in this? How did it pop up on your radar?

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, I've been arguing with this guy about this issue.

[Sean]

This guy is in. Senator to Lee.

[Braxton McCoy]

Senator Lee. Since 20, at least 20 something.

[Sean]

You've been in his office. You've.

[Braxton McCoy]

Okay, yeah.

[Sean]

Let's go through this whole timeline of how you got started.

[Braxton McCoy]

There was a. Now, Senator Lee and I believe Ted Cruz and some other politicians had put together this thing they were calling the Public Lands Initiative, which was a push to cede, in their terms, back these lands back to the states, which is a total misnomer because if you go to the Utah Enablement act, there's language in there that straight up says, here's your 7 million acres, you never get any more. And I think I sent you guys the screenshots of that so you can put it up. It says you're not entitled to any more, basically ever. You know, but in lawyer speak. So it was Never their land to begin with. But that's a good way to push this kind of thing on to the public because like if you take somebody who's got a grazing allotment in southern Utah, for example, if he's got an issue with a riparian area so he's trying to fix some kind of water on his place and it's blm, it is much harder to get that done through the BLM than it is on state ground because there are allotments on state ground as well.

[Sean]

What does the BLM stand for again?

[Braxton McCoy]

Bureau of Land Management.

[Sean]

Okay.

[Braxton McCoy]

And Utah has a thing called CITLA that covers most of their state lands. It's like student initiative. Teacher. Some. It basically it covers that that these lands are managed to make money for the Department of Education. Well if you wanted to fix some stuff on a riparian area on state land, it's way easier, just as an example. And they'll even let you use your equipment and time and stuff like this as an in kind contribution so it's cheaper. I can totally understand why a guy who's a rancher down there would prefer state management to BLM management on an allotment. But from a political perspective, from the perspective of the people that are pushing this, they know that if that land were to be ceded to, not back to, but seeded to the state, there's a provision in the constitution that says that the state constitution which is true of this is true of basically every western state I know of. There's a provision in there that says any land held in our trust has to be managed to essentially highest maximum value. So it has to make money. Well, I mean I don't think I need to explain to people a grazing allotment is not going to make as much as a data center or something. So you've just set it up for being sold off by transferring it into state control. Unless the constitutions were to be amended.

[Sean]

So are you saying they might be putting data centers out there too?

[Braxton McCoy]

It's just speculation, but yeah, I don't see why you wouldn't. If AI is the future as everybody's saying, you know, we've got to build our, our demonic overlords. Just from financial perspective it's got to be cooler to run them in the mountain west where you've got six months of winter and a lot of wind. And I'm sure these, you know, I know computers get hot fast. I'd imagine giant ass computers get hot even faster and are expensive to cool. So just one reason to Move them out there. Another reason is they'd be very remote and a lot easier to harden. You know, if you think of it from a tactical perspective, if you put a data center in the middle of, like, six sections of land, you can get this thing out of mortar range or whatever, if that's something you were worried about. So you put that in the middle, and then you hire security and you've got a suite set up for your data center. Bring in some H1Bs and put them on there. And I guess.

[Sean]

But this is. This is speculation.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

[Sean]

Let's not do speculation. Let's just do. Let's just do facts. Okay, so let's move into even the voting stuff that you mentioned. I understand it, but I don't think that is. Me personally. I don't think that is a legitimate argument about, you know, well, the state might flip. Well, if the state flips, the fucking state flips. Like, people live there now and they have a right to vote. But. But my. My concern is, this is our land. It's my land. Your land. This is American. American's land that they're able to enjoy like the Theodore Roosevelt wanted us to. And now it's potentially going up for sale. So let's. Let's start with how you. How you got involved.

[Braxton McCoy]

So when this public land initiative was going, I. Before I learned more about this, I had been amenable to the idea of transferring to the states. It's a really easy sell if you don't get in the weeds because a guy. Of course, local control sounds better, right? So I thought, yeah, this would be much better for everybody. Give us our land back, that kind of thing. But when you look into the details of it, that's not like you're not likely to keep it. And when Teddy and others put this thing together, the idea was that it belonged not just to us, but to those yet in the womb of. To our grandchildren. Right. Well, I joined an organization that was supposed to be like a nonpartisan organization and got involved with them doing advocacy stuff. In fact, my wife still bitches at me to this day because I had forgotten about this. But I guess the day before we got married, I went to a trade show to do advocacy for this stuff. And so she had to go to a trade show for a few hours, and she's still pissed about it, you know, eight or 10 years later, you know, So I joined this organization, and I get invoted into state leadership. I actually didn't want to be in state leadership. I just Wanted to try to provide the perspective of someone that didn't live in Salt Lake, you know, like a liberal perspective. I wanted to have our voices involved. So I was going to these meetings and, you know, pushing my.

[Sean]

What do you mean you got elected into state leadership?

[Braxton McCoy]

The organization has an election process. So they elected me and put me in a Southern Utah chapter board leader or whatever title they had. And again, I didn't even. This is not something I desired in any way. So that meant I needed to go to this rendezvous in Missoula. So I went up there and attended some of their workshops, hung out at the beer garden, went to the lectures, all that kind of stuff. But at one point there was this ethics panel and it was some very smart people up there on this ethics panel, and they were deliberating on the ethics, the difference between morality and legislation and other nerd stuff. And when it came question and answer time, I got a mic and was just like, I actually don't think you guys understand the difference between morals and laws at all. And I presented a scenario that was basically, if a deer is stuck in a fence, if you shoot it without permission, you're breaking the law. But if you leave this thing whose leg is completely ripped up and is going to die anyway to suffer, then you've cut against your morality. So there's just a real easy delineation between the two things. And I was saying, you guys are trying to argue that ethics are foisted on us by laws. And I think the exact opposite is true. Law should reflect our ethics and morals. So after presenting that, some people came to me and said, we want you to go to D.C. and lobby. Well, advocate. I don't even know what the right term is. Okay? I don't want to get anybody in trouble, whatever the hell the right term is, either lobby or advocacy. So I went and presented my case to our representatives in D.C. those that I could get FaceTime with, which at that time was basically all of them, or they're high up staff people, which is who you really want to talk to anyway, for the most part. And at one point I'm in Lee's office and I don't want to get any family in trouble, but they. One of his staffers ends up because we're arguing about this transfer idea. And I was saying, for all the reasons I just mentioned, I don't think it's a good idea. And they pointed to, basically they were calling me an absolutist, like they're doing now, which I'll just happily Wear at this.

[Sean]

What's an absolutist?

[Braxton McCoy]

That I just want, I don't want them to take any of it now. I don't trust them with an anchor, you know, so there's. They're calling me an absolutist. It's another way of use calling me an extremist and others. It's not just me. There's plenty of people that are out there saying this stuff. I mean, Cameron Haynes is saying this stuff. He's got a huge platform.

[Sean]

You know, it seems like anybody that's big in hunting, outdoors, fishing, they're all, they're all beating to the same drum here.

[Braxton McCoy]

So something to it totally. It's. You've. If you've proven yourself untrustworthy, why would I trust you with even an inch? Right. That's kind of my viewpoint on it. So they get up and they, they got an actual plot map of Utah out and they pointed at a parcel and they said, well, what about a parcel like this? Why can't we just have this transferred? And I said, I know the family that runs cattle on that personally. You know, they're a friend of mine. So you'd be taking food and money out of their pocket if you did this. And I don't. At least with the staff that didn't go over particularly well. I'm not saying it embarrassed him, but it probably did, you know, so that was my first interaction with the guy who, by the way, I thought was a pretty decent guy otherwise. We disagree strongly on this one thing, but I never thought he's a bad guy. I mean, I've done interviews like six months ago saying I think he's a good guy. We just disagree. And I think you're making a huge mistake. But if you're hiring people to look into me, I don't know about the good guy thing anymore. You know, my opinion starting to. And I think he probably still is a good guy. There's just something going on here. So that's kind of where it started. And then I, eventually I ended up leaving that organization because I had begged them not to let this thing become a liberals who hunt organization or else it'd be absolutely doomed. And that's what they did.

[Sean]

Dude, we want to politicize it.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, you can't. You cannot politicize this issue, especially as a liberal, because it's the conservatives in Utah that are that want it, you know, to a degree, as far as the politicians go. In fact, at. While I was on that trip, one of the guys from that organization Way up in the leadership. There he was, we were at a dinner and he was essentially. But I, he might have even straight up used the term, but he was calling me a baby killer because he used to be with one of these other liberal orgs that goes over to war torn areas. And so he's doing like the meme, you know, baby killer meme. So that was kind of, at that point I was like, all right, you know, if you guys are this ridiculous, I'm not interested in staying. So then I've just been kind of on my own trying to educate people whenever the subject comes up.

[Sean]

Are there any politicians that are against the transfer?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, Ryan Zinke. Ryan Zinke has been great.

[Sean]

He's a seal. He was, He's a seal. He's a congressman out of Montana, right?

[Braxton McCoy]

He is, yep. And he used to be Secretary of Interior under Trump. Did a lot of great things. In fact, I was at the OAR breakfast. I can't even remember what that, that acronym is. It's like outdoor something in research. Basically they go over how much money is brought in by hunting, fishing, recreation, that kind of stuff. It's around 860 billion a year. So this is big money. And then secretary, at the time, Secretary Zinke spoke, you know, so I shook his hand, but I don't know him, never really met him. I don't want to, you know, hello, thank you. That's it. Right. But since then, when he, he got into office, he has since reintroduced this Public Hands and Public Lands act that would protect this kind of stuff and add another layer of protection to what is already there. I mean, he's been fantastic and totally stalwart on this.

[Sean]

You know, the other thing that I, I know that it sounds like Lee is trying to do is reduce national debt, which I think we all want that. But, you know, there are lots of other ways, I think, to reduce that debt, a lot of other ways, but nobody's acting on them. And then, and then, and then the other thing, you know, there's the, there's the affordable housing, but I mean, there's other ways to do that. I mean, I don't know, cut some taxes, put a, put a little money back in everybody's pocket to the American citizen and then, you know, maybe they can go buy a house. But this is one, one thing. But you know what I mean? Do you think that, is there anything good that could come from this.

[Braxton McCoy]

For the everyday guy?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

No, I don't think so. No, I don't think the everyday Guy wins anything. If he was going to, there wouldn't be this many people pissed off at me for saying, I don't think so. I think when these arguments come up, it. The argument, the, the response should be the everyday man. Hunter, fisher, wrangler, recreator, you know, that, that kind of thing. He only loses. He loses access, he loses his heritage, his birthright, all of that. The winners are megacorps, donors, politicians, that kind of thing. Kind of typical American story. The, the talk of you've got to allow for growth in these places. All of that, that sort of thing has been argued since the beginning.

[Sean]

Well, we just established there's been plenty of growth. The state you met, you rattled off several states at the beginning that the population has doubled since to 2000. Definitely plenty of growth.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. And we went to the moon while all of this existed. So I don't think it's necessarily holding us back in some serious way.

[Sean]

Did we go to the moon?

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, right. I don't. You know, there's that. Well, we at least made a really cool film. Yeah. I think the everyday. The everyday guy only. Only loses grazers, hunters, all of them. It's just a loss. And then I would really like to drive home again, the point that this is the only place on earth that's like this. You can't just go do whatever the hell you want. In Germany, I'd like to use them as an example because they have a roughly the same percentage of quote unquote, public land as we do, roughly 28%. But in Germany, you can't just go hunt wherever you want or go hike around whenever you want. And sometimes people will push back and say, well, you can't either because you need a license. Like, well, you have to manage the species too. These are two separate arguments. But in theory, yes, I can. You know, I can go in Idaho. I can go buy a tag over the counter every year. You can't do that in other places. So this is a loss for us and a win for someone else. Take your bet.

[Sean]

And then all the animals that will go extinct, because you're saying that this is where they go during the winter.

[Braxton McCoy]

Mule deer populations are on decline across the entirety of the west. Have been for years. Nobody knows exactly why. Most likely it's a combinatory thing. It's a. It's more than just one thing. Certainly loss of winter range is one of those things. Mule deer only live in the western United States and Canada, like in. That's it. And from my. I don't like to Pretend to be overly pious because I am a Christian, but I suck at it, you know, And I'm not trying to do a false humility thing. I just really not very. I'm trying to be better, but I suck at it. And I don't want to pretend to be overly pious. But the book that we all adhere to, in theory, one of the initial commandments is to be a steward of creation. So killing off a species, especially one as iconic as a mule deer, I view as a sin, an actual sin, and that's probably what would happen. The only state I know of that's heard has reached stasis. It's now it's down from 1 million to about 400,000 animals, last I read is Wyoming. And one of the things they did. I think Eastman's worked with the head biologist of mule deer there. One of the things they did was identify some tracks of land that were used as a migratory route, a couple of ridges. And those ridges had fences on them because they were privately owned. And they camped with some money, bought those ridges. This is my understanding, they bought those ridges out and then removed the fences, and now their herd has reached stasis. You know, some of these animals travel 100 miles.

[Sean]

You know, people are worried about land preservation all over the country, too. I mean, just for example, here in Tennessee, I told you, since. Since COVID this has been. It's over developing. There's piles of people jumping in here. And now just. Just in this state, there is the Tennessee State Land Trust, where you can put your. Put your. Put your property into a trust and to. To preserve it so that it can never be overdeveloped. And I mean, like I said, people all over the country are starting to worry more and more about overdevelopment and what's going to happen to our forests and our rivers and our creeks and our conservation, you know, and so.

[Braxton McCoy]

Man.

[Sean]

You'Ve been on this for 10 years.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. I mean, long. Yes. As far as talking to people about it, anyone who would listen. But, dude, I remember being in Iraq. I wrote about it in my book, however long ago I wrote that freaking book. But we were. I can't remember if we were on an op or we were in, you know, hooch. Whichever it was, I think we were on an op. We were talking about, what do you miss back in the world, you know, that kind of thing. And everyone's talking about their family. And of course I love my family and everything, but I said the dirt, and they were even my friends kind of shocked. And I mean, it. You know, the. There's this concept on Twitter that it's not magic dirt is what they say. And I understand what they mean when they say that. They mean you can't just bring anyone on earth here, and then magically they're an American just because they touch the dirt. Right. But it is magic dirt. It's magic because of us, our history, our heritage, the people that made this place. It is magic dirt. So. Not in that other sense, but in this sense it is. And I love it, man. So, yeah, I. I've been on it since, you know, when I got wounded, Dude, I was 20. I turned 20 in Iraq. So I was thinking about this stuff back then.

[Sean]

Damn. One thing you missed the most was the dirt.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Braxton, I think that might be the perfect place to end this. But I do want to ask, if Senator Lee was sitting right here in my chair across from you right now, what would you say to him?

[Braxton McCoy]

I'd say, what's wrong with the process that we have in place? And it seems like you're trying to ride the popularity of Trump to ram through a pet issue. And I'd like an explanation for why that is.

[Sean]

Well, we reached out to his office. We'll probably offer him a slot here to give him the opportunity to tell his side, even though it's already all over the place. I think this is the first time he spoke on a fairly decent sized platform. Correct.

[Braxton McCoy]

I did Jocko's a couple years ago. He did. Cool.

[Sean]

Cool. But. Well, Braxton, like I said, I really appreciate you coming down here. I think it's very honorable, the fight that you're putting up, and. And it seems like the majority of America is behind you and not behind the politicians. I wish there was more politicians other than Ryan Zinke fighting this, but. Doesn't look like there is, according to you.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, at least on the right wing side.

[Sean]

One more thing. We just got some news that came in. Can you read that off, Jeremy?

[Braxton McCoy]

Trump administration to end protections for 58 million acres of national forest. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the Clinton era ruling barring road construction and logging was outdated and absurd.

[Sean]

Well, there goes 58 million acres. Is that what that means?

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, it depends. You have to be careful not to lean into hysteria. The left is good at that. Extraction is covered under flipma and can and should be done responsibly. The. The old way they used to say it is graze it, log it, or watch it burn. It can and should be done. It just needs to be done. Responsibly and so this is another one of these places where I'd like to see the map because I don't know who put out the very first map that everybody was reacting to. But if you know the areas, some of the areas that were designated for logging were stuff like juniper trees. And as a lover of mule deer, I hope they cut more of those. But you're not logging junipers. So whoever. I want to know exactly which sections and how it's going to be done. But yeah, you should log. I mean, you have to. Really. Some people. We have wilderness areas now. Wilderness.

[Sean]

So that may not be a bad thing.

[Braxton McCoy]

No, maybe not.

[Sean]

That may not. But it says giving up protections, correct?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, but it all. So it could be bad. You just have to be able to identify the plots in order to make the the decision. Some areas do need to be logged. 100, you know.

[Sean]

Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, I wish you the best of luck and maybe we'll do a follow on if any more develops.

[Braxton McCoy]

Good. Thanks, man.

[Sean]

All right, cheers.

[Braxton McCoy]

Appreciate it. Cheers.

[Sean]

Hey, it's Randy and Beverly from that relationship communication podcast, Heart vs. Head. Hey, Randy, what are three reasons that.

[Braxton McCoy]

Head partners should listen to Heart vs. Head?

[Sean]

To make their partner happy.

[Braxton McCoy]

To listen, learn how to make their.

[Sean]

Partner happy and figure out why their partner is not happy. Well, that's a total head answer.

[Braxton McCoy]

Heart partners listen to the podcast because.

[Sean]

We want to communicate and connect more with our partner. Yeah, that's kind of what I said. Heart versus Head.