The Battle of Athens ‘46

Fellow gin enthusiast and British statesman Winston Churchill once said; “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”. Jon returns to discuss current events and reflect on a historical episode involving a corrupt, illegitimate, illegal and tyrannical sheriff and the amazing men who decided to stand up and take matters into their own hands, preserving the revolutionary sentiment of these United States of America.

Featured Sources:
Tyrant Biden clip: https://youtube.com/shorts/SHLHkmWoYDU?si=kZut__DpXdc6-4GQ
Mister Limbaugh clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dijHqOKtrug 
President Biden's Anarcho-Tyranny: https://www.newsweek.com/president-bidens-anarcho-tyranny-opinion-1733783
How a group of veterans restored democracy to a small town; https://www.legendsofamerica.com/the-battle-of-athens-tennessee/  

Visit Website: www.abracast.com
The Red Vault / Subscribestar: www.subscribestar.com/abracast 
The voice of The Abracast – Hila Assor https://hilaassor.com/
Theme Song “Red Horse Rising” by X-Proph3t: http://www.reverbnation.com/xproph3t
Written / Produced / researched / Performed – Jon Towers

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
In the dark shadows, in thewhite cold. Fearlessly, we search for
knowledge new and old. We drinkthe strong spirits and read the ancient tongs.
The order of the Abercast. Weare the brave and the bold.

(00:33):
The Abercast a cult history, conspiracyand violence. Hey, everybody, welcome

(01:19):
to the Abercast. I'm your host, doctor John Towers. And holy shit,
has a lot of things happened sincethe last time that we've gotten together,
Since the last time that we've chatted. I mean, it's like a
whole new world out there. Let'ssee what happened. Well, the changing

(01:40):
landscape of political discussion has happened.The debate happened, And honestly, the
debate was weird for me because whenyou know, we've been watching Joe Biden
for quite a long time. Wehave a pretty extensive library on episodes about
Joe Biden. Some of the onesthat stick out to me or the eternal
recurrence of Joe Biden, which basicallyjust we examine his disastrous foreign policy.

(02:07):
We talk about, you know,the super predator business, how Joe Biden's
wildly racist, we talk about howhe's just stupid. We we've talked about
that, Uh, the Extortion oneseven episode that's out there, so this
you know, we and I justwant to just point out, like this

(02:28):
episode is not really about Joe Biden. We're gonna use him to kind of
step off into the story, butit's a history story. We're gonna be
talking about the Battle of Athens,but we're gonna start with you know,
our our fearless leader. And thentoday obviously, well, I mean,
I don't want to skip past PrideMonth, but thank America's sweetheart, the

(02:49):
Hawk two girl forgetting us uh aokthrough Pride Month without you, uh you
know, pink haired weirdos bashing usover the head two months. You know,
nothing like a fun drunk girl talkingabout blow jobs just to NonStop for
for a month, for a month, every time you open your phone up.

(03:10):
You know, God bless that girl. And you guys know, if
you've listened to the show for anyamount of time, you know any kind
of videos where uh hot drunk chicksare spitting on people, that's right up
our alley here. So Extortion oneseven, I lost my train. Oh

(03:32):
and then today he steps out outof his re election campaign, which is
great, I mean, but whatwe have to look for now is now
they have a lame duck scapegoat sortof situation, and they've used him for
this kind of stuff in the past, like this is why our borders are
wide open, and Jesus fuck,are we gonna be dealing with that forever

(03:53):
at least, you know, acouple decades, even if they closed it,
like right now, we're gonna bedealing with this in this influx of
you know, Iranian and Chinese andthe Hamas and has Bela as well as
the Venezuelans and Mexicans and all thisstuff, Like we're gonna be dealing with
this forever. The reason they didthat is because they're gonna pile that all

(04:16):
on the feet of Joe Biden.So we really have to pay attention to
what's coming up next, even ifhe resigned from the presidency, Like he's
not really in charge of anything,right, So like Obama or whoever's in
charge, will just you know,use him or Kamala Harris or whoever you
know to do what's coming up next. And I believe that's gonna be fucking

(04:39):
around with the Supreme Court. Theythey showed their they tipped their hand a
little bit last week regarding that,and I believe that's probably gonna be like
the next part of the plan.And you know, I'm not I'm trying
to be optimistic. However, Ibelieve that the last fair election has already
happened. I believe, you know, we're going to see COVID and mail

(05:04):
and ballots and the whole not.Actually, I'm not going to discount any
anything. And I think that's probablywhy we're gonna talk a little bit more
about preparedness and maybe some tactical stuffcoming up on the on the podcast,
because I think that that's what weneed to know. We're you know,

(05:25):
we've you could go back in timeand go back to the archives and look
at our spiritual warfare discussions. Youcan go back and look at like our
historical talks and stuff. And Ifeel like we've done an okay job to
get us ready for the times thatare ahead. And the next part of

(05:46):
that for me is I think goingto be talking a little bit more about
the prepared And I know that we'vedone some go bags and preparedness episodes and
stuff, but really, I thinkthat's what my heart is telling me to
do now. Anyhow, So we'regonna be doing a history episode today,
a Battle of Athens, but we'regonna start off with a little bit of
modern sort of politics, and we'regonna be examining a rich, stupid thing

(06:11):
that Joe Biden has said and thathe I mean, it's just it's just
crazy. Anyhow, this we're gonnabe talking about, and then we're gonna
be maybe talk a little bit aboutwhatever. You'll We'll get through it.
We'll get through it. Just hangtight. Here we go. I got
my vessel of the art here withmy favorite weapon of mass distraction, and

(06:31):
it actually busted out a new vesselof the art. By the way,
the design it's the same classic design. I just got a new one.
My old one was a little worsefor wear and a little beat up,
and you know, trying to renewmyself for going forward, I wanted to
bust out a new jar. SoI got in my new jar here.
I got my Northern Lights loaded upin my vap pen. We're ready to

(06:56):
go. So here, we'll justlet the the crupit old man lie to
us, and then we're going tospend the rest of the episode kind of
explaining it to him. Enough Roguegun dealers feel like they can get away
with selling guns to people who aren'tlegally allowed to own them. And I

(07:17):
might add the Second Amendment from theday it was passed limited the type of
people who could own a gun andwhat type of weapon you could own.
You couldn't buy a cannon. Thosethat say the blood of the blood of
patriots, you know, and allthis stuff about how we're going to have
to move against the government, Well, the tree of liberty is not water

(07:38):
or the blood of patriots. What'shappened is that there never been If you
wanted to think you need to haveweapons to take on the government, you
need to have fifteens and maybe somenuclear weapons. The point is that it's
always been the ability to limit rationallylimit the type of weapon that can be
owned and who can own it.I'm just gonna say false, and in

(08:03):
fact check false. The Second Amendmentof the United States is actually very brief.
It's enough rogue gun dealers feel likethey can get away with all,
right, enough of that. TheSecond Amendment is very brief. And the
reason it's brief is because it's verybroad, and it doesn't limit the kind
of weapons you can buy, andit doesn't limit who can buy them.

(08:26):
As a matter of fact, I'mgonna read it right now. It's gonna
take me about fifteen seconds to getthrough the whole fucking thing. The Second
Amendment, A well regulated militia beingnecessary to the security of a free State.
The right of the people to keepand bear arms shall not be infringed,
full stop. That's the whole thing. That's the whole thing. It's

(08:50):
not the people have the right tokeeping bear certain arms, that people have
the right to keeping bear any armsthat aren't cannons. The people, some
of the people have the right tokeep in bear some of the arms.
No, it's simple, it's shallnot be infringed. And to say otherwise
is duplicitous, sinister, evil,tyrannical. I don't know. So I

(09:16):
think about this and and I thinkabout conservatism. You know, we just
watch the R and C. AndI mean it was amazing, it was
tremendous, it was the best rnC. But you know, conservatism whatever
that means. Nowadays, I lookat the Republican Party and they're just full

(09:39):
of dare I say, neo conslike warmongers and all this stuff. And
I think, like, you know, to we just read the Second Amendment,
and I think, you know,what is the conservatism about these days?
And it takes me to this thingthat the Nizuza's a conservative commentator from

(10:07):
it might be important to you.I don't know why if it is,
but he's from an Indian background,dot not feather. But he says he
defines conservatism in the American sense asconserving the principles of the American revolution unquote.

(10:30):
And the revolutionary sentiment is, youknow, it refers to a strong
feeling or support for the revolution,particularly during a time of social or political
change, and relationship to Thomas Paine'scommon sense, it describes the widespread desire
among American colonialists to break away fromBritish rule and establish in independent nation.

(10:58):
So, you know, bringing thatrevolutionary sentiment forward, what we could say
is something like the widespread desire amongAmericans to break away from tyranny and to
establish you know, a more perfectunion, an independent nation. So kind

(11:18):
of wanted to bring those two littlebits here. And we're gonna be listening
to like one other clip and uhshit, man. Ever since like the
mid nineties, I you know,I've flirted to about telling the story about
my conversion, my conversion to conservatism, that happened in like nineteen ninety five,

(11:41):
I think maybe nineteen ninety four.And you know, when I'm looking
at these current events, I oftenthink to, you know, one of
the personalities that led me down thisroad, uh being one mister Rush Limbaugh.
And I find myself often these daysthinking what would Rush say about this?

(12:07):
You know, he Rushies has beendead for I don't know a year,
maybe two years. It was ablack day in his in my personal
history when we when we lost Rush. But I found him. I found
a clip of him doing a publicaddress. It's like at a fair or
something. It's wild, but hehe's talking about this this idea, this

(12:28):
revolutionary sort of idea, and Ithought that, you know, I can't
go wrong playing a clip from misterLimbaugh here. So wow. I also
have to say, you know,it's been a while since I've been behind
this microphone that's not golden and it'snot an e IB microphone, So I

(12:52):
might be a little clunky at tieingthis whole thing together. It's gonna get
better, everybody, But just likeright now, so I apologize for that
blast. Let's see if this isany better there. I apologize for that.
It was not on purpose. Thankyou all very much, Thank you

(13:13):
so much. But I can't hearyou. I'm a little hard to hear
you. I gotta tell you,folks, thank you so much for allowing
me to be part of this tonight. It is a thrill. It's an
honor for me to be here aboutall of you. It's the fourth of

(13:35):
July. And do you know whatwe're celebrating today. We are celebrating a
revolution. We are celebrating the mostunique revolution in the history of humanity.
Most revolutions installed dictatorships. No,I'm not going there tonight, our revolution.

(14:07):
Have you ever thought? I askedmyself this frequently. As I've gotten
older the country I have become moreand more in awe of, And I've
asked myself. We're two hundred andthirty five years old. Today. There
are countries, civilizations thousands of yearsolder than we are. In two hundred

(14:33):
and thirty five years, we havebecome the most powerful, the most benevolent,
the most productive, the richest societyin the history of the world.
How did this happen? Do yourealize even to this day, the United

(14:54):
States produces twenty five percent of allof the world's economic upward. What do
you got to set How did ithappen? My friends? Seriously, we
are no different DNA wise than anyother human being anywhere in the planet.
There's nothing special about us genetically,So what is it about us as Americans

(15:20):
that's special? I heard a keyword here alone. The word is freedom.
But if it's but, I wantyou to stop and think about something
very seriously. This country has producedopportunity and prosperity unlike the world has ever

(15:50):
seen before. The first reason isthat our founders this country's a miracle.
Our founders believed in the power ofthe freedom of the individual, not the
power of elite government to dictate forpeople the individual. They knew that people,

(16:14):
using their God given gifts, theirown ambition and desires, could exceed
their own expectations, could realize theirdreams, and in so doing create the
best and most prosperous country in thehistory of civilization. But there's one other
element to American exceptionalism. This isa term when people banding it out think

(16:36):
well, we're better than everybody else, We're exceptional. That's not what it
means. The history of the worldis oppression, tyranny, dungeons. Not
here. We are an exception tothe way human beings have always lived on
this planet. This is a nationblessed by God. That is our exceptionalism.

(17:02):
This is not a country chosen byGod. We are blessed by God
because our founders, it's all inour declaration of folks. We are all
endowed by our creator. There itis all right, that's enough, So
God national treasure right there by God. So there's a little inside baseball though.

(17:27):
You guys that have been with theshow for a long time know about
God, and that's where that's whereit comes around. I stole it from
Russell MBA. Anyhow, what he'ssaying there is thoroughly the truth. And
when I said earlier that, Ilook back and I wonder what Rush would

(17:49):
say about this today. You know, one of the things he said is
like, hey, the history ofthe world is dungeons and torture and bullshit.
Well it's crazy because we're kind ofgetting back there, like we're normalizing
political prisoners. You know what isthat? You know, it's torture and

(18:10):
bullshit. Yeah, as I'm paraphrasingmister Lumbad, so we're gonna switch gears
here, and well, before wedo that, let's go So my podcast
host is going bananas with these adbreaks, so I just need to apologize.
They make me put them in.If I don't put them in,
they will arbitrarily put them in,and I refuse to put you guys through

(18:36):
that. Like I like to giveyou guys plenty of warning when commercials are
coming up. So here we go. Uh again, like I said,
a little inside Baseball, I'm alittle clunky at this. I'm getting back
on the horse. So yeah,so here it's gonna be commercial break time.
Everybody. H it's really gone crazywith these amount of ads they've forced

(19:45):
me to put in here. So, like I said, I I apologize
for that being this early. I'mjust trying to figure out how to make
it work, you know, goingforward. So we're gonna switch gears and
talk about President Biden's and go tyranny. This is an opinion piece from Newsweek,

(20:06):
I believe, written by a guynamed Pedro Gonzalez, and this was
back in August fifteenth of twenty twentytwo. Last week, federal agents launched
an unpresident and raid on former PresidentOrange Man his mar a lago estate.
The warrant signed by Attorney General MerrikGarland, who's been in a little bit

(20:30):
of hot trouble, a little bitof hot problems lately, demanded the seizure
of virtually any document created during hisfour years in office. To many observers,
it reeks of a fishing expedition,which, as Democrat election lawyer Mark
Elias said, will likely force Trumpto litigate this sorry affair while campaigning in

(20:52):
twenty twenty four. And that seemsis the point. They call this laft.
They've been calling this law a nicespelling error. By the way,
Newsweek, what the fuck are youdoing? Okay? It escaped the notice
of a few that two days agoafter the raid of Hunter, Biden skipped
aboard Air Force One with his fatherfor flight to a family vacation in Hawaii

(21:17):
or No in Kauhah Island in SouthCarolina, considered the Hampton's of the South.
President's son remains unmolested by federal lawenforcement, although he is currently under
federal investigation for tax fraud, moneylaundering, unregistered lobbying. None of those

(21:37):
things have come to pass. Theonly thing they got him on is a
bullshit weapons charge, and now he'staking meetings at the White House somehow like
that motherfucker can't get a security clearshe's a crackhead. Sorry, we know
that Biden's Pierre has played a roleon so several of his son's shady business

(22:00):
dealings. No one is above thelaw, Trump's critics say, except,
of course, those who are.The discrepancy in the application of law is
an example of what political theorists SamuelT. Francis coined a narco tyranny in
nineteen ninety four. Call him forthe Chronicles magazine referred to an essentially a

(22:23):
kind of Hegelian synthesis. We've talkedabout the Hegelian dialectic, so you can
go and listen to that. Ibelieve the Skull and Bones episodes. God,
maybe the first one. I don'tremember. It's been a long fucking
time. You know what they sayabout this shit in short term memory of

(22:48):
what appears to be a dialectical oppositesthe combination of oppressive government power against the
innocent and the law abiding, andsimultaneously a grotesque paralysis of the ability or
the will to use that power tocarry out basic public duties such as protection
or public safety. It is anapt description for what is happening in the

(23:12):
US these days. Today's anarco tyrannyexpresses itself in the Biden administrations per chant
for selectively enforcing laws and orders punishingpeople for the same or similar fences differently
based on the relationship to the powersthat be and or political leanings. I

(23:34):
would editorialize Americans become intimately familiar withthe concept in its strict sense. After
the death of George Floyd triggered BLMriots. You know, mostly peaceful.
They were mostly peaceful riots, althoughthey proved the most destructive and the costliest

(23:56):
violent demonstrations in recent American history.An analysis of The Guardian found that this
vast majority of citations and charges againstthe George Floyd protesters were ultimately what do
we know? We know that theywere all dropped, dismissed, or otherwise
not filed or followed up on.There is something to be said about the

(24:17):
mar Lago being rated under the pretextof Presidential Records Act violation by the same
FBI that kneeled in solidarity with theBlack Lives Matter near the National Archives as
flames engulfed Washington. I promise thisis not gonna be the way the whole

(24:41):
episode is that if you guys areteetering, you're like, why am I
leaning so hard in it? It'sall gonna make sense by the end,
I promise even by the end.It's just gonna make sense here when I
get started on the story, youknow, at the beginning, when I
was read through the things that happened. Since we've talked, I realize now

(25:03):
that we didn't even talk about theassassination attempt. I didn't even bother to
add that in my list. That'show fucking clown shoes this world is.
Right now. Americans were similarly treatedto the outlines of a narco tyranny when
Christopher Ray, the FBI director,announced that the violent mask wearing thugs known

(25:26):
as Antifa, which we've talked aboutat length on this podcast, do not
constitute a terrorist organization if you lookup the definition of terrorism by the way
its threats and intimidation or violence actedto influence political change. So if Antifa
isn't a terrorist organization, I don'tknow. I don't know what is?

(25:51):
Uh disembody. That's the thing aboutall this fucking like legalese political speech.
The Orwellian political speech. These days, it changes everything into what it doesn't
mean, and changes stuff that itdoesn't mean into what you're talking about.
Like, I dumbfound it about thesepeople running around saying that America is a

(26:15):
democracy and it's not a republic.I mean, this is on the fucking
news. I'm not even saying thequote news unquote. I'm talking about like
what people, normal people, wecall the news CNN more. I guess
normal people might still call that thenews MSNBC. They're like, are you
shocked that these Trump supporters are sayingthat we live in a republican not a

(26:37):
democracy. Yes, bitch, that'swhat it is. Recite the Pledge of
allegiance. That's all you have todo. You learned it like when you
were in first grade. God,I'm wound up. Where are we at?
I need to spend more time withyou guys. I'm having so much
fun. Meanwhile, back to it. Whistleblowers revealed the FBI's Countertime Herorism Division

(27:02):
created a threat tag to monitor investigationsand to parents who attended school board meetings
to oppose vaccine and mask mandates.Parents exercising the First Amendment rights are apparently
a greater threat to federal law enforcementthan militant anarchists. At this point,
the question is, then, whyunder anarcho tyranny in all its forms,

(27:27):
an issue is presented to the publicfor not near, not merely as a
problem, but a crisis, thenthat necessitates the regime to assume extraordinary powers
in their response. The regime,Francis says, quote, exploits the problem
as an instrument by which it continuesto enhance its power, although neither the

(27:52):
fake problem it exploits nor the realproblem that exists is affected unquote. Official
declarations of racism as a public healthcrisis, like those that followed BLM riots,
provide pretext for radical redesigns of societythat invariably empower the managers who oversee

(28:17):
top down change. Meanwhile, lawenforcement shifts from targeting criminals the targeting innocence.
Last week, federal agents launched anunpresident and raid on former President Orange
Man's mar A Lago estate. AllRight, I feel like I'm getting a
little far in the weeds to dothis setup, so we're just gonna move

(28:41):
forward again. I apologize, guys, this is just this is like my
first episode back so it's gonna getbetter. I'm gonna I'm gonna remember what
the fuck I'm what the fuck I'mdoing. I'm gonna remember it. But
until then, here there's a littleweapon of mass distraction for you. Ay,

(29:03):
yes, get to listen about somedick pills or I don't know,
whatever fucking commercials they put on here. I'd like to do a commercial for

(29:26):
the type of gin that I use. Are you interested in that? It's
bottom shelf maybe bottom shelf. MaybeI should make my own brand of gin.

(29:49):
It will be like bottom shelf gin. That's the way. That's the
only way to do it. Youget the top shelf stuff. It tastes
too much like a pine cone,you know what I'm saying. I'd be
like the Hennicans gym, the Hennicanswhiskey of I don't know the pot The
Abercast podcast episodes. So the Battleof Athens that we're talking about took place

(30:22):
in August first and second of nineteenforty six. The Battle of Athens,
according to the historical event marker thatwas erected, says in part, the
Battle of Athens was an armed revoltthat gained national attention. This is back

(30:45):
in nineteen forty six, attempting toend the control of an entrenched political machine.
World War II veterans used force toensure that on the day of the
local elections in nineteen forty six,every vote was quote counted as cast unquote

(31:07):
after local authorities locked to themselves andthe ballot boxes in the jail. I
don't want to finish reading this andget to finish too soon, right,
I don't want to prematurely finish.We're gonna get into the Some of the
articles that I found regarding this Legendsof America dot com. The Battle of
Athens, Tennessee. How a groupof veterans restored democracy to a small town

(31:34):
by Paul Meani. This is Libertarianismdot Org republished but with permission to the
Legends of America dot com. Quoteeternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
It is a quote commonly and incorrectlyattributed to Thomas Jefferson. It was in

(31:57):
fact never uttered by Jefferson, butinstead by the irishman John Pilpot Curran,
who wrote, quote, the conditionupon which God hath given liberty to man
is eternal vigilance. Which condition,if he breaks servitude is at once the
consequence of his crime and the punishmentof his guilt. This sentiment remains apt.

(32:23):
We cannot stay free for long ifwe are not willing to scrutinize,
critique, or the most extreme endof the spectrum resists the encroachments of the
state upon the dignity, rights andfreedoms that every person deserves. Both American
and Ireland rebelled against the British fortheir harsh treatment of both colonies. America

(32:49):
became began ugh became its own nationin seventeen seventy six, but Ireland,
being physically closer to the British,took until nineteen twenty two. The history
in both countries also illustrates that revolutionsare dangerous, messy affairs that require immense
sacrifice and risk by those who opposethe powers that be Here here, I'm

(33:13):
actually gonna drink to that that revolutionarysentiment wasn't extinguished in America after the founding.
One of the most fascinating and yetunderappreciated episode of episodes of American history
is the Battle of Athens, whichoccurred in mcmon County, Tennessee, in

(33:37):
nineteen forty six. The only successfularmed rebellion in America since the American Revolution.
Veterans returning from World War II toa county racked by corruption oppression saw
no option but to take up armsin their war against In their war against

(34:00):
foreign tyranny was over, but thebattle against the corrupt government in their hometown
had just begun. Mcmah County,Tennessee, is nestled between Chagan, Chattaanooga
I took a train through there onetime, and Knoxville in the mountainous southeast

(34:21):
part of the state. It Itwas created in eighteen nineteen, and it
was named in honor of Joseph McMahon, a former militia commander in the Revolutionary
War who was later elected governor ofTennessee. The two main cities of McMahon
are Attowa, which you should knowbecause of sixty days in and Athens.

(34:45):
By the nineteen forties, mcmahn hadroughly thirty thousand inhabitants, most of whom
were farmers, with some even livingwithout electricity. The farmers would gather for
social and political occasion in the cityof Athens, the county seat, which
had been nicknamed the Friendly City.This description of the small town life hardly

(35:08):
makes it seem like a place withrevolutionary potential. I'm going to make a
band. My band name is goingto be revolutionary potential. I fucking love
it. But despite its demure sizeand remote location, the local government was
astoundingly corrupt. I would editorialize thatmost local governments are probably corrupt on a

(35:37):
sliding scale or something. Right.Enter the villain of our story, Paul
Cantrell born in eighteen ninety two inAttawa County. Cantrell came from a wealthy
family, and his siblings owned alumber company, a motor company, a

(35:57):
local water light and power utility,and a bank based in Otawa County or
Otawa. There were few business dealsin McMahon County that the contrels did not
have a hand in, but PaulCantrell's ambitions shifted away from enterprise and what
towards politics. From the Civil Waronwards, mcmhn's political offices were mainly held

(36:22):
by Republicans, but by the nineteenthirties, Tennessee increasingly came under the control
of the Democratic Party, thanks inpart to the political machine of Edward Hall
Crump, which controlled much of Tennessee, including McMahon. Thanks to Crump's backing
Cantrell ran as the democrats candidate forsheriff in nineteen thirty six. So whenever

(36:47):
we start cop bashing here on thepodcast, I'm always quick to point out
about sheriffs because sheriffs are arguably themost power or full person in your area.
Your sheriff that you vote for hasimmense power because you vote for them

(37:10):
cops you know, your city copsor your borough cops, or your village
cops or whatever. Like, youdon't vote for them if they just have
a job where the sheriff is aposition and his deputies. Actually the reason
they're called deputies is because the deputyvests them with some of the power that's

(37:36):
given to him from the voters.If you go back through the shows the
podcasts and you find anyone that dealwith like the how I can't even remember
what the name they are. TheAmerican sermon probably talks about them. Anytime
I reference the five thousand year Leap, you know, that's where this people

(37:58):
to power triangle comes into play.And you know, I would recommend that
book to anybody, especially in thepolitical climate where we are today, recommend
the five thousand Year Leap to anybody. It's still it's not in the public
domain, so I've never covered itone to one on the podcast because you

(38:24):
know, I don't like to cheatpeople out of their rights, or I
don't like to be a plagiarist orwhatever, So we generally only do one
to one episodes on books that arein public domain. But since I can't
do like a book, maybe I'lldo a book report on a one day,

(38:45):
but I can't do a one toone on the five thousand year Leap.
I just go out and buy it. Man, it's such a phenomenal
book. All right, Where thefuck was I hear? I'm pretty sure
we're talking about this corrupt sheriff,all right? I think this is where

(39:07):
it was a Democratic candidate for sheriffin nineteen thirty six, and was often
the case in the rural South.The position of sheriff was the most critical
position in mcmah, even more sothan the town mayor or the local officials.
The reason that I say that thesheriff me personally I'm off this script,

(39:27):
But the reason I'm saying that thesheriffs are the most powerful person is
because they wheeled legitimate elected power andthey have guns, right, Like the
fucking mayor I guess kind of canbe in charge of the police or whatever,
but it's their violence of action issecondary to SHARE's violent violence of action.

(39:51):
I'm not even sure that's the rightterm for what I'm talking about,
But like, say the FBI cometo arrest you, and they're on your
property and they have a warrant andall this other kind of stuff, if
a sheriff were so inclined to intervenein that situation because they are elected,
they actually can supersede what the FederalBureau of Investigation is trying to do.

(40:13):
If that's why they're in charge oflike sheriff sales and evictions and stuff like
that. They are very political,and you just hope that your sheriff knows
what they're fucking doing, right,You just hope. I've even beyond my
sheriff numerous times and they just neverget back to me, So I mean,

(40:40):
you know what I'm saying. Anyhow, even more so than their own
town mayor and the local officials,Cantrell defeated his Republican opponent by a very
slim margin. Citizens of McMahon weresuspicious of foul play, and the election,
but they lacked concrete evidence of Cantrell'salleged fraud. Because of this,
the election came to be known asthe vote grab of nineteen thirty six among

(41:04):
the citizens of mcmah, Tennessee's policinglaws created perverse incentives, with sheriffs and
their deputies collecting a fee for eachperson they arrested. This is like the
Sheriff Nottingham sort of side of thestory. Cantrell was already paid a generous
sum of five thousand dollars a yearfor his position, which would be like

(41:27):
one hundred grand today. Cantrell andhis deputies quickly mastered how to abuse the
fee system and began arresting people ontrumped up charges of public drunkenness to line
their own pockets. What an awfulidea. By the way, what I'm
what I could actually be talking aboutis like modern day cop highway cops who

(41:52):
are like pirates, just looking toruin your life and take your money.
Cantrell's cronies were so shameless in theirabuse of power that they often stopped buses
passing through the county, dragging outthe sleepy passengers and telling them that they

(42:13):
needed to pay a fine for theirimagined drunkenness on a week On a good
weekend, for Cantrell and his cronies, up to one hundred and fifteen people
were arrested, and each fine meantmore money. The only oversight deemed necessary
for their system was a voucher signedby the sheriff, who of course was
Cantrell, who had no qualms withthis dubious system. To give some perspective

(42:38):
on how rotten mcmon had become,from nineteen thirty six to nineteen forty six,
three hundred thousand, or five milliondollars of today's money was collected through
these fees in ten years five millionbucks and ten years. Traill's corruption stretched

(43:01):
beyond the fee system. Cantrell andhis men allowed road houses, brothels,
and gambling dens to operate freely inexchange for hefty protection fee. I would
have rewrote that, I mean,I'm not like a literary critic, but
Cantrell's deputies often rated. It's likeyou say something up is operating freely,

(43:31):
and then like seven words later,you say for a protection fee. Anyhow,
Cantrell's deputies often raided road houses andshook down patrons using familiar drunkenness charge
charges once again as a friendly city, Athens was now quite unfriendly. Back

(43:52):
to the nineteen eighty four George H. Or Well double speak or news speak,
because everything you say is actually anor anyhow encourage Ann Rand did that
very well too, in a specificallyat the Shrugg where her version of like

(44:13):
the the legislation that fucked everything upwas like, this is the national legislation
for not fucking things up, andthen in turn it actually fucked everything up.
You see this everywhere. Now,Just start when you hear a quote
news story unquote about a piece oflegislation, just remember the name of it,

(44:37):
and then in five years think about, well, did that do what
the name said or did it dothe exact opposite, because it always does
the exact opposite Affordable Care Act did. I'm encouraged by his lucrative, ill
gotten gains, Cantrell successfully stood forre election ast sheriff in nineteen forty eight

(44:59):
and Or nineteen thirty eight in nineteenforty, winning both elections yet again by
suspiciously slim margins. Nineteen thirty eightnineteen forty ConTroll left nothing to chance.
Precinct ballot boxes were gathered by Cantrell'smen, who brought brought it to the
county jail to be counted. Anyonewho attempted to watch these counts within Kentrell's

(45:24):
fortress was promptly labeled a trouble makerand forcibly removed. God damn it,
this all sounds really familiar. Rememberthe shot of the poll workers putting the
butcher board paper over the windows sothey couldn't people couldn't look in. Oh

(45:45):
look, hey, we found anotherbox that Joe Biden votes over here.
Hey, I found another box ofthem in my trunk. Wow. Poll
tax receipts required for voting were oftensnatched from political opponents, and many who
voted in favor of Cantrell were deceased. Again, this is the playbook.
They've been using it since the goddamn forties. Man, it became increasingly

(46:08):
evident to the citizens of mcmah Countythat their elections were a farce. I
wonder if Cantrell ever thought about howhe undermined democracy while sitting in the jail
of a city named after Athens,Greece, which was the birthplace of democracy.
In nineteen forty, Woods introduced sorry. George Woods, an ally another

(46:34):
spelling error by the way of Cantrell, successfully ran for state legislator. In
nineteen forty Woods introduce acts to reducethe number of voting precincts from twenty three
to a mere twelve, effectively killingany chance of Republican opposition. Woods also
helped cut down the number of Justicesof the Peace from fourteen to seven.

(46:55):
Of the remaining seven justices, fourwere openly lackeys of Cantrell and the last
Republican hold outs, and the courtscommanded the county to purchase voting machines in
a feudal attempt to make the electionsmore transparent. In relation, Cantrell used
his connections with Woods to pass abill that not only abolished the courts,

(47:19):
but also sold the new voting machinesunder the pretense of saving money. In
nineteen forty two, at the endhold one, you know what time it
is, I'm sorry. Nineteen fortytwo, the end of his fourth term
as sheriff, Cantrell successfully stood forelection as a member of the state legislature.

(47:40):
Cantrell was succeeded as both many monarchand local meglomaniac by his loyal crony
and chief Deputy, Pat Mansfield.And that's where we'll pick up after this.

(48:32):
Mansfield was quote elected unquote sheriff innineteen forty two, using the same
dubious tactics as his predecessor. Bythat time, the Americans had joined the
Second World War, and Tennessee livedup to its nickname as the Volunteer State,

(48:52):
providing no less than three hundred thousandvolunteers to join the fight against fascism
abroad. McMahon was no different fromthe rest of Tennessee, with an admirable
three thousand young men volunteering to jointhe war effort, an incredible tenth of
the total population of mcmah. Wow, that's amazing. Lacking police manpower,

(49:15):
the newly elected Sheriff, Mansfield resortedin hiring ex convicts as his deputies.
If Cantrell was bad before, Mansfieldwas even worse. His grip on the
county tightened as he suppressed local newspapers. He controlled personnel decisions at the public

(49:36):
schools. A resident of Athens,Bill White, later recalled in an interview
that Mansfield had complete control over everything, schools and everything else. You couldn't
even get hired as a school teacherwithout their okay or any other job.
Despite the overt corruption in mcmahn County, state and federal authorities declined to inter

(50:00):
Local residents reportedly appealed to the Departmentof Justice in nineteen forty, nineteen forty
two, in nineteen forty four foran investigation of election fraud, but even
the investigation fizzled out with no resolutionor action taken. Little could be done
to resist the petty tyranny established byCantrell and further expanded his protege Manfield Mansfield.

(50:28):
Those who left McMahon County to fightfascism abroad did not forget the vulgar
fascism at home. Ralph Dugan,a resident of McMahon serving in the Pacific
Navy, said that he spent moretime worrying about his home of mcmah than
he did about fighting the Japanese.Dugan's anxiety would only be heightened further when

(50:51):
he found out that Cantrell and Mansfielddeputies shot two servicemen who were back home
on leave when the war ended.Okay, so this all seems dismal and
awful. Here's where the story startsturning around. When the war ended,
the mcmining Eyes were demobilized, theydid not return to a pleasant welcome.

(51:16):
Veterans were used to having a fewdrinks without being bothered by authorities, but
Mansfield and his gang of deputies andex convicts, aware that veterans pockets were
flushed with mustering outpay, targeted theveterans returning home after fighting for their country.

(51:37):
Veterans were beaten, arrested, andsubjected to shakedowns by the very people
who were meant to keep the peace. I think we can all see where
this is going now. By Januaryof forty six, Mansfield's term of sheriff
was almost at an end. Manfieldplanned on running for state legislature, while

(51:57):
Cantrell decided that he wanted to returnto his position as sheriff. Cantrell's reason
for wanting to return to a sheriffposition is unclear, is it? I
think we can make a guess ortwo. One possible theory is that Cantrell
missed the fee system's lucrative profits assheriff, which outweighed the perks of being

(52:22):
a state legislature. Tired of beingharassed and harangued, the McMahon veterans banded
together to contest Cantrell's and Man's Fieldsregimes. The early months of nineteen forty
six, the veterans held a meetingin secret to field their own list of
candidates for the five positions up forgrads the upcoming elections. The veterans met

(52:45):
secretly, even going so far asto never meet twice in the same place
to avoid Cantrell's surveillance. The veteranswent public with their campaign in May,
two months before the elections scheduled forAugust. First. This is like walking
Tall and Rambo all wrapped up,man. I mean, these dudes were

(53:07):
amazing. And you know what's funnyis if they just left them alone,
they probably everything would have been okay. You know, you don't fuck around
with vets and their drinking. I'mgonna drink to that. Interestingly, the

(53:27):
movement of veterans was distinctly nonpartisan,with three of their candidates being Republicans and
two belonging to the Democrats. Thiswas not a red and blue issue,
but a right and wrong Knox HenryA, decorated a veteran of the Northern
North African Campaign, was choosing tostand against Cantrell. The veterans' message was

(53:51):
clear and simple. They wanted reformsensuring fair and transparent elections. Acknowledging the
widespread resentment of the previous elections wonthrough blatant fraud, the veterans made their
own motto, your vote will becounted as cast and was a simple democratic
right, but something that the peopleof McMahon had not experienced for quite some

(54:14):
time. Cantrell attempted to sabotage theveterans' chances of winning the election. The
county had only one vote registration bookfor veterans, and of course, whenever
a veteran went to the courthouse toregister, the book was missing. Veterans
were also arrested and their poll taxreceipts were confiscated, thus making them an

(54:34):
eligible to vote. This all isgoing bad. It's all gonna this when
they start fucking around man like,it's not gonna go good for them.
The veterans asked the FBI to sendelection monitors to ensure a fair election,
but received no reply. With thehelp of the federal government and knowing that

(54:55):
Cantrell would try voter intimidation, theveterans set up a militia of sixty men
led by Bill White, nicknamed theFighting Bunch, to help prevent violence or
fraud in the upcoming election. Theveterans were not the only ones assembling.
Increasingly paranoid and afraid that the manyveterans who opposed him, Cantrell hired two

(55:19):
hundred out of state deputies to helpoversee the election. To give some perspective,
the sheriff usually fielded no more thanfifty fifteen deputies in McMahon County.
On August first, the day ofthe election, approach to the veterans sent
two telegrams, one to the governorand one to the Attorney General of Tennessee,

(55:44):
asking for their help to ensure afair election. Neither was answered.
The veterans had no backup. Thisis the worst place to put a veteran.
By the way, this was nosurprise. Over the last ten years,
the Department of Justice had received overa thousand messages from McMahon claiming voter
fraud. The best they had everdone was indicting some Cantrell and Manfield Mansfield

(56:09):
deputies. He walked free thanks tokrupt judges. On election day, voters
turned up early and in numbers unprecedentedfor the country's history. It didn't take
long for things to get ugly.Before the polls were open, illegally appointed
veteran representative was arrested for protesting votingirregularities. Cantrell had armed deputies at every

(56:35):
single precinct. Veteran poll watching wereintimidated, beaten, and arrested. Cantrell
had armed deputies at every precinct whoonly admitted a few people at a time
to vote, keeping lines long.Tom Gillespie, a sixteen year old black
man whose parents were denied the rightto vote, was met at his polling

(56:58):
station by a deputy who said,you can't vote here. When Gillespie asked
why, the deputy responded ND words, you can't vote here today. After
Gillespie insisted on his right to vote, the deputy beat him with brass knuckles
and threw him out of the pollingstation. But Gillespie knew the value of

(57:22):
his right to vote. On daunted, he stood up, walked back in,
saying he wasn't going anywhere, andthe deputy pulled out his gun and
shot Gillespie for his defiance. There'sso much shit going on in that last
paragraph. I don't even know whereto start. First of all, I
just want to point out that democratsthis is their thing. Like Bull Connor

(57:45):
was a Democrat. So are youpeople that are like, I don't know.
Just go google it, you'll thisis what they do. This is
what they do. We have beenaround long. People have been writing down
the history long enough to where wecan see the pattern. There's pattern recognition
involved in this stuff. A fewminutes later, a veteran poll worker named

(58:07):
Bob Harrol observed a young girl withoutpoll tax receipt voting. When Harold asked
her age, she said seventeen,which was below the legal voting age.
Harris also watched as the deputies paidcash in exchange for votes for Cantwell.
When Harold protested, a deputy beather with a club and beat him with

(58:29):
the club and kicked him repeatedly whilehe was on the ground. When Harold
was dragged unconscious to jail, twodeputies took the liberty as taking his wallet,
which contained the photographs of his familyshe had kept with him throughout the
war. Despite their best efforts,it seems like another election was being stolen.
It seems that way from these beatenbattered and bruised veterans. Cantrell's men

(58:52):
closed the polls early, tampered withthe ballots, and intimidated voters with impunity.
It is worth noting that the mayorand the police force of Athens were
conveniently, at least for Cantrell,they were on vacation. The veterans gathered
in a garage downtown Athens. Manyhad lost hope and returned home, surrendering

(59:15):
to Cantrell's intimidation, and for goodreason. But Bill White, the leader
of the Fighting Bunch militia, hadfought at a young age in the Pacific
War and refused to surrender. Whitewas never given a formal speech before,
but he knew that McMahon County wasdoomed to repeat the cycle if someone didn't

(59:37):
motivate the veterans to take action.Thanks to the excellent scholarship of Chris Durouse,
we have an account of the speechthat Bill White gave. Well,
here you are, White said,after three or four years of fighting for
your country, you survived at all. You came back and what did you

(59:58):
come back to? A free country? You came back to Athens, Tennessee,
and McMahon county that's run by abunch of outlaws. They've got hired
gunmen all over the county right now, at this minute. What for one
purpose? To scare you so badthat you will not dare to stand up
for the rights that you've been bleedingand dying for. Some of your mothers

(01:00:22):
and your sisters are afraid to walkdown the streets to the polling places.
Lots of men too, because theyknow what happens. A car drives by
in the night and shoots out yourwindows. That doesn't scare you enough,
They'll send fire to your house oryour barn. They'll beat up members of
your family and put them in jailfor no reason. Is that the kind

(01:00:45):
of freedom that you were supposed tobe fighting for? Do you know that
your rights are? Do you knowwhat your rights are even supposed to be?
How many rights have you got left? You got none, not even
the right to vote in a freelWhen you lose that, you've lost everything.

(01:01:12):
Roused by White, the remaining veteranssteeled themselves for a fight. White
and the other veterans grabbed a truckand broken in nearby National Guard armory.
White and his men grabbed guns andas much AMMO as possible and loaded in
the back of the truck. Theyreturned to the veterans headquarters. He brought

(01:01:37):
seventy rifles with two AMMO bandoliers.By nine o'clock, Cantrell, Mansfield,
and Woods, along with fifty deputies, locked themselves in the jail to count
the votes in a private In private, to ensure control's victory, veterans led
by White approached the jail using thecover of night, and they took up

(01:01:59):
position. They demanded that Cantrell andMansfield count the boxes in public. It's
hard to pinpoint exactly how the conflictstarted, but White claims he fired the
first shot. Veterans took up positionson nearby rooftops and rained fire down on
the jail. Any deputies outside immediatelyretreated to the safety of the fortified jail.

(01:02:23):
Without radios, it was hard forthe veterans to coordinate and attack on
such a fortified position. Veterans firedon the building for hours, but Cantrell
and his fellow goons refused to surrenderwithout despite being surrounded, The veterans proved

(01:02:44):
ineffective, and as time passed,the veterans began to fear the worst.
If they didn't force Cantrell's forces tosurrender, they would be branded criminals.
Once the National Guard arrived, veteransmade multi cocktails and hurled them at the
jail, but they were ineffective.Looking for something stronger, some veterans broke

(01:03:08):
off from the firefight to retrieve dynamitefrom the county storehouse. By two point
thirty am, they had returned withdynamite, ready to blast Cantrell and his
men into submission. Before any dynamitewas used, an ambulance pulled up to
the jail. The veterans assumed thatit was for the wounded inside and held

(01:03:30):
their fire. It was a ploy. Cantrell and Mansfield jumped inside the ambulance
and sped out of Athens as fastas they could, and once the ambulance
had departed, the veterans began throwingtaped together sticks of dynamite, damaging nearby
cars and doing some damage to thejail's facade. Leaderless, exhausted by a

(01:03:51):
six hour firefight and now facing highpowered explosives, the deputies quickly surrendered.
After some rioting and nonviolent appraisals againstpolice cars and some particularly cruel deputies.
The battle was over amazingly. Whilemany were wounded, no one died that

(01:04:12):
night. Even in the subsequent riots, six of the twelve ballot boxes were
disposed of due to tampering by Cantrelland his men. In the remaining six
ballots boxes showed clear victory for theveterans. For all five offices of the
election, including the position of sheriff, Each veteran candidate won at a proportion

(01:04:32):
of roughly two votes to everyone against. The veterans called a meeting to plan
what to do next. The fourhundred people at the meeting elected committee,
a committee to preserve law and orderwith an armed militia in case Ktrell returned
to take the town. This islike mid evil stuff like he never came

(01:04:57):
back. The only person with chargesbrought against the following the Battle of Athens
was the man who shot Tom Gillespie. Though Cantrell's political machine had been broken,
everything was perfect now that he wasgone. Although some reforms were passed
by the Gis. According to White, who became a deputy, the the

(01:05:18):
system stated in place for another fouryears, although it was nowhere near as
abused compared to the decade of Cantrell'sregime. The media was not exactly sympathetic,
with many reporters writing that the peopleof McMahon should have found a more
peaceful solution. Well, they wereprobably democrats to anyone in mcmah County could

(01:05:46):
have told them that a peaceful reformwas made impossible by Cantrell and Mansfield,
who had stopped fair elections by anymeans, by any means necessary. One
of the more conscientious appraisals of theBattle of Athens came from former First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt, who wrote, thepolitical machine does not allow the people free

(01:06:09):
expression. The freedom loving people losetheir faith in the machinery under which their
government functions. As is explained thatany government, whether local, state,
or national, must guarantee that itcan express the will of the people.
It failed to do so. Eleanorwarned their days are numbered. I just
would like to point out the ironyof this. Her husband, prior to

(01:06:32):
this event was locking up Japanese peopleall over the place for no reason.
Where the veterans of mcmahn justified theirviolent overthrow of the correct government of McMahon,
It's hard not to think about thedeclaration of Independence, where Thomas Jefferson
wrote of his fellow Americans, whena long train of abuses and usurpations,

(01:06:59):
pursuing invariably the same object evidence isa design to reduce them under absolute despotism.
It is their right, it istheir duty, to throw off such
government, and to provide new guardsfor their future security. Mirroring this sentiment,
Abraham Lincoln, in his first inauguralspeech said, this country, with

(01:07:25):
its institutions, belong to the peoplewho inhabited it. Whenever they shall grow
weary of the existing government, theycan exercise their constitutional right of amending it,
or their revolutionary right to dismember oroverthrow it. God damn it.
I want to end it right here. That's such an awesome way to end

(01:07:48):
it. But even justified revolutions aremessy affairs that never result in utopian outcomes.
Cantrell was overthrown, but that didn'timmediately fix it Men County's issues.
Regardless, The Battle of Athens teachesus the valuable lesson of vigilance Today,

(01:08:09):
as the state has consistently expanded thesize and scope, passing more laws than
any human anywhere anyone could ever read. Keeping the state accountable to the citizens.
Is ought to serve is more importantthan ever. Thank you very much

(01:08:29):
for listening. I hope you enjoyedthe show and had fun. I fucking
did. I love I love it. Thank you so much. And I'm
John Towers and here it is on? Where is it? What's going on?
Okay, it'll be better next week. Prom Are you interested in the

(01:08:58):
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(01:09:31):
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