Trivial Mysteries

I have a lot more respect nowadays for how easily I can be bamboozled.  Ideally that would lead to humility but, ach, you know, I think of it like St. Augustine said of chastity: “let me be humble Lord... tomorrow.” 

Pre-Trump I used to think of myself as a decent discerner but he inadvertently blew that wide open by turning out to be the white ha, at least compared to the establishment black hats.  I was anti-Trump in ‘15 before my eyes were opened to worse forces at work.  

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I’m still wonderstruck by the number of conservatives arrayed against the Richard Jewell/Nick Sandmann defamation lawyer Lin Wood: Charlie Kirk, Dan Bongino, Kyle Rittenhouse, MTG, Pat Byrne, Jovann P....  How to win friends and influence people right? Someone who draws so much fire must be way off base or way on base?  On the defense side, just Joe Oltmann, Prof. David Clements, and Lin’s dogs, ha. (Wood lives in God’s country by the way,  on a plantation in Beaufort SC not far from the isle of Hilton Head.)

I’m trying to put together a unified field theory for the Wood hatred from the Right, and I suspect it’s because he had a huge falling out with MTG for reasons unclear and Kirk and Bongino need to be friendly with MTG for professional reasons. Rittenhouse is the more problematic. 


I think if Wood is a bad guy here, he’s the most persuasive bad guy I’ve listened to in eons, maybe ever. See first line in this post though. I didn’t think it was possible for someone to be so persuasive and so evil, at least if he’s guilty of the opprobrium. 

I really have no idea why I care, or anyone should, about who is telling the truth other than the sheer cussed unknowingness is fascinating. (The irony is we don’t even know ourselves, as St. Paul wrote, so there’s plenty of fascination to be had without searching far and wide for it.) But mysteries, man, they just really suck you in.  They suck you in because you think if you read just one more link you’ll understand and get closure and feel like you’ll get some vast panoramic view from that small mystery revealed -- or at the very least that you can move on. Trivial knowledge is not wisdom, I get that. Intellectually at least. 

There are few people more bizarre, for good or ill, than the actors in the 2020 election integrity drama, like Mike Flynn channeling a dead cult leader.  Or Mike Lindell’s tireless all-in approach. Or Patrick Byrne. The truth of human beings is stranger than fiction. 

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On Telegram, Lin Wood the other day comments on Johnnie Cochran: 

I miss Johnnie Cochran.

Johnnie was a friend of mine and I was a guest on his television show a couple of times.

It would be great to hear Johnnie’s legal commentary on the Rittenhouse and Maxwell criminal trials.

On January 1, 2004, I made a televised appearance on the Today show with Katie Couric as her guest in a panel discussion along with Johnnie.

We were discussing which case we thought would be “THE high profile”case in the news in 2004.

I predicted it would be the Kobe Bryant rape case. Johnnie predicted it would be the Michael Jackson criminal case.

I was subsequently retained to represent the female victim in the Kobe Bryant rape case in a civil lawsuit against Bryant. The case was successfully resolved in favor of my client by means of a confidential settlement agreement.

I recall in the January 1 Today show interview, Katie asked me the question of whether I would represent Saddam Hussein if he sought my legal services.

I have never been a criminal defense lawyer. However, I did reply to Katie that I would not represent Saddam Hussein because I tried to focus my law practice on representing innocent clients.

I told her that I would “refer Saddam to Johnnie Cochran.” Johnnie almost fell out of his chair laughing out loud.

Johnnie Cochran was a great guy and a great trial lawyer.

Johnnie won cases no one could or should have been able to win.

RIP Johnnie Cochran.