Normally, Cockburn’s position is that Twitter should be shut down, with a mandatory death penalty for anyone who attempts to revive it. That is still his position most of the time. But one man is making him reconsider his stance: Georgia lawyer L. Lin Wood. At heart, Cockburn is a journalist with an irrepressible attraction to the abnormal and offbeat. And Wood is about as offbeat as things can get.
2020 was such a remarkable election, in such a remarkable year. Already, Giuliani’s melting hair dye and improbable voter fraud lawsuits had been overshadowed by Sidney Powell’s quixotic attempt to blame the Republican defeat on a scheme by Nicolás Maduro to bribe Republicans in Georgia. But now, even Powell herself has been left behind by Wood’s incandescent insanity.
Wood first shoved his way into the national political picture in late November when he did the impossible: supporting Trump so fervently that Trump himself had to back away from him. A month ago, the ex-Democrat became the most vocal figure arguing that Republicans should protest alleged voter fraud (and the GOP’s failure to ‘stop’ it) by boycotting the Georgia runoffs and letting the Democrats win. It’s a risky gambit: Jon Ossoff becoming a US senator is so cringeworthy the country may collectively wince to death if it happens.
But in the past week, Wood has done something remarkable. He has become the first public official of the Trump Age, besides Trump himself, to enter what might be called the Trump Zone: at this point, you could be told anything about Lin Wood’s behavior and automatically believe it.
Wildly alleging that the White House chief of staff is conducting a clandestine affair with an obscure Twitter user? Yep, that happened:
Mark earlier confessed his sins to a small group of Christians. We are a forgiving people as we should be because we are all sinners & need forgiveness. But if Mark thereafter continues the affair with @KirstenMcKim, can he be trusted? Ask @_WilliamsonBen for the truth. He knows.
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) December 31, 2020
Accusing the Chief Justice of the United States of molesting his own adopted children and helping murder Antonin Scalia? Sure, why not:
A bit more on CJ John Roberts.
I have publicly accused him & Justice Breyer of being profane anti-Trumpers.
I have linked Roberts to illegal adoption, Jeffrey Epstein, pedophilia & prior knowledge of Scalia’s death.
Did Roberts skip class on defamation?
Maybe not . . .
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) December 31, 2020
Going on an insane, megalomaniacal rant suggesting he could be the second coming of Christ, or at least a reincarnation of the great prophets? Oh, absolutely; a newly-filed lawsuit claims to have it all on tape.
On Thursday, Wood made his most bizarre allegation yet: that billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who committed ‘suicide’ last year, is actually alive.
I am fully aware of the onslaught of attacks being made against me based on my revelations about Chief Justice John Roberts. Before attacking me, maybe fair-minded people would first ask Roberts to tell the truth.
Or ask Jeffrey Epstein. He is alive.
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) December 31, 2020
And then, on Friday, Wood promptly topped even that, announcing that Vice President Mike Pence will soon be arrested for treason and face execution by firing squad (even though this method is no longer used by the federal government):
If Pence is arrested, @SecPompeo will save the election. Pence will be in jail awaiting trial for treason. He will face execution by firing squad. He is a coward & will sing like a bird & confess ALL.
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) January 1, 2021
This would all be amusing enough if Wood were just another Twitter crank or MAGAverse grifter. But Wood is a real attorney, who attracts actual clients. Clients who often have a lot to lose! He represented Atlanta security guard Richard Jewell and Covington high schooler Nick Sandmann. Until a month ago, Wood was still on Kenosha Kid Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal team. Just imagine him rolling into the court room to accuse the prosecutor, judge, and every member of the jury pool of being members of the Epstein pedophilia ring. The mind reels.
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Kyle’s freedom may have been saved by Wood’s ADD, as he’s now moved on to suicide bombing the Georgia GOP. But if Wood’s power to derail Rittenhouse’s life has receded, his power to derail all of America has increased. If Wood’s call to boycott the Georgia runoffs is heeded by even a few thousand people, and Republicans narrowly lose both elections, the Senate will flip to Democratic control. From there, anything is possible.
Fifty years from now, Puerto Rico and Washington DC could be states because a deranged Georgia lawyer gave Democrats the votes they needed to admit them. Puerto Rico’s electoral votes could swing a future presidential race. The filibuster could be gone, and 20 million formerly illegal immigrants could be citizens. The Supreme Court that Justice Roberts still leads (pending Jeffrey Epstein’s return to accuse him of human trafficking) may have expanded to 13, or 27, or 717 members. Just a few years from now, Lin Wood’s Q-adjacent tweeting could be of macrohistorical importance. How lucky we all are that we may witness it.
