Speaker 1: I have started recording. I am actively in progress with
Speaker 1: my recording. Welcome back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast
Speaker 1: in which we talk about bad people, and often the
Speaker 1: bad person we talk about happens to be Elon. I. I,
Speaker 1: what's a good fun middle name for Elon Balthasar? No,
Speaker 1: we do that for Jordan Peyton Peterson. We're talking about
Speaker 1: continuing with as Elon Jordan Balthasar Shapiro Peterson Musk Musk
Speaker 1: Elon Crowder. Boy, that's a horrible AI mass here.
Speaker 2: That's the thing I want to think about. I want
Speaker 2: to that out of my brain.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I want that to be secondhand news.
Speaker 1: Wait for that. I guess we're we're not are we still?
Speaker 1: We're not doing If you guys listen to the the
Speaker 1: the I guess it's a DJ group Fleet Mack Would.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you call them, but they they
Speaker 1: do like, you know, fucking dance for no no, yeah,
Speaker 1: Fleet mac Would. They do like they they're like a
Speaker 1: touring act. They do like shows and ship where it'll
Speaker 1: be like an hour or two hours, and they're like
Speaker 1: they're all like beats that are made up of like
Speaker 1: cut up and mixed up Fleetwood mac songs like it
Speaker 1: kind of it fuckings like find yourself here in Wood
Speaker 1: and listen to it.
Speaker 3: Wait, I am not exaggerating, joking hyperbole.
Speaker 2: I will be listening to that as soon as we're done.
Speaker 1: Oh you're you're gonna like it a lot. It fucking
Speaker 1: it's some of the best stuff. I do it for
Speaker 1: writing a lot. It's good to work out, too, good
Speaker 1: to do the yard work. Two yeah, good to good
Speaker 1: to you know, make love and fun with all that,
Speaker 1: all that good stuff, all that good good stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: in case you're out macin Yeah. So anyway, uh do
Speaker 1: do looking out my front door at these Elon Musk
Speaker 1: at this Elon Musk ship.
Speaker 4: So we switched at the c.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know what this episode it's all creepy baby,
Speaker 1: not a fan Cody, that's fine. How do you feel
Speaker 1: out the Eagles?
Speaker 2: How do you feel about what.
Speaker 5: I think?
Speaker 2: I think?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 2: C CR is fine.
Speaker 3: I mean I've never heard of a more fortunate son
Speaker 3: than Elon Musk.
Speaker 1: Oh. Oh, there we go. We're in business now, baby,
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, there we go. Perfect. So when we left off,
Speaker 1: our hero had decided to prevent Twitter from paying its
Speaker 1: janitors for work that they had already provided after or
Speaker 1: before being fired again, potentially a crime in essence, it
Speaker 1: quickly became clear to Killian who's the person who replaced
Speaker 1: the last person whose job it was to pay for
Speaker 1: rent and stuff? That Musk's intended method of operation was
Speaker 1: to obtain services from vendors without any intention of keeping
Speaker 1: the agreements or paying for services requested and received. Killian's
Speaker 1: concern that Musk truly intended to apply this approach to
Speaker 1: Twitter's rent obligations was confirmed the last time on December ninth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, when Mendozas specifically informed Killian that Musk
Speaker 1: had decided Twitter would no longer be paying rent globally.
Speaker 1: Globally Yeah, and again, Mendoza is one of these people
Speaker 1: from I think the boring company. It's one of those
Speaker 1: folks that it's one of the people that he brought
Speaker 1: in to manage stuff. Who isn't that guy's girlfriend very
Speaker 1: funny living in the office with their infant? AWO, Just like,
Speaker 1: where are they putting? It?
Speaker 3: Is the biggest crib like a desk drawer, and there's
Speaker 3: on the pullout.
Speaker 1: It has to have been right. I spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time in and around, like the California medical marijuana industry,
Speaker 1: which is a pretty sketchy business, but like the working
Speaker 1: standards at Twitter sound a lot worse. Absolute good stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah places at least.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there was free weed for people. Usually when
Speaker 1: somebody got murdered, you didn't know them very well. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of benefits of that over over Twitter. So
Speaker 1: uh yeah, Killian was like I it tried to convince
Speaker 1: Musk via his lieutenant Mendoza that like they were putting
Speaker 1: the company in tremendous jeopardy and that they wouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to renegotiate any of their leases if they defaulted
Speaker 1: on rent, which makes sense. Mendoza in response, tells him
Speaker 1: that Muska decided Twitter would only pay rent over his
Speaker 1: dead body. Hey this next, pert, Cody. I got to
Speaker 1: read this to you, guys. Mendoza conveyed that Musk had
Speaker 1: made that statement during a four a m. Conversation that day.
Speaker 3: I say, have you ever heard somebody actually use that expression?
Speaker 3: It's very hack like over my dead body. No, that's
Speaker 3: not a thing people actually say.
Speaker 4: Well, he's not a creative man.
Speaker 1: No, only when people are being like silly, right, Like
Speaker 1: if somebody's like joking around, you might say that, but no, yeah,
Speaker 1: having a laugh. It's like saying I'm putting my foot
Speaker 1: down where it's like, what does that even mean? Like
Speaker 1: that that doesn't that's not how you anyway, whatever, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've had I've said that. I've said, like I'm putting
Speaker 1: my foot down over like somebody wants to eat at
Speaker 1: Windy's on a road trip and I want Popeyes, you know,
Speaker 1: but like, anyway, whatever, elon silly, fundamentally unseerious man. Musk's
Speaker 1: instructions to simply ignore Twitter's contractual obligations and forced killing
Speaker 1: to breach contracts and destroy relationships he had spent more
Speaker 1: than a decade building would have been more than enough
Speaker 1: to render it impossible for Killian or any reasonable employee
Speaker 1: to remain employed at Twitter. But that was not the
Speaker 1: only issue. Musk was also making clear that his reckless
Speaker 1: disregard included disregard for both the law and for the
Speaker 1: lives and safety of his colleagues and employees. Here we go.
Speaker 1: For example, Davis told Killian that Musk wanted to add
Speaker 1: a bathroom next to his office so MUCKs must didn't
Speaker 1: have to wakes security team and cross half the floor
Speaker 1: to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: Killian explained that it would take time to get the
Speaker 1: necessary permits, but promised to begin that process right away.
Speaker 1: In response, Davis instructed Killian not to bother with obtaining
Speaker 1: permits because, to paraphrase, we don't do that. We don't
Speaker 1: have to follow those rules.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Shocked, Killian reminded Davis that if they did not get
Speaker 1: a permit, no licensed plumber would perform the work for
Speaker 1: fear of jeopardizing their license. Davis responded by instructing Killian
Speaker 1: to hire an unlicensed plumber instead, just go find it
Speaker 1: a legal plumber for Elon Musk's trime on YouTube.
Speaker 4: Man who fucking cares?
Speaker 1: Also, what an un serious, silly coward of a man
Speaker 1: who like I can't go to the bathroom in my
Speaker 1: own company offices at night without waking up a security team,
Speaker 1: Like I won't cross the floor to go take a
Speaker 1: shit without armed minu at my back. Like I'm sorry, Elon,
Speaker 1: You're not in that much danger at the fucking Twitter offices.
Speaker 4: Oh wait, it was because he didn't like wait, I
Speaker 4: thought it was, like, well.
Speaker 3: The excuse was that he doesn't want to wake up
Speaker 3: his security team anyway.
Speaker 6: Well, so I'm I guess I'm confused about which stupid
Speaker 6: thing he's doing. So, like, is it he doesn't want
Speaker 6: to wake them up because like, oh, they're like sleeping
Speaker 6: on my floor because I'm a maniac and like I
Speaker 6: need them there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where is it?
Speaker 6: Like, well, I don't want to go down the hall
Speaker 6: because if I go down the hall, I have to
Speaker 6: wake them up so that they follow me because they're
Speaker 6: my security he.
Speaker 1: Might yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's saying that he doesn't
Speaker 1: want to have to get them up to to follow
Speaker 1: him across the floor to the bathroom. You don't, You're
Speaker 1: not just go to the bathroom, man, You're fine, Like
Speaker 1: they're tweets, they're not getting.
Speaker 6: If you don't have that king down the hall, those
Speaker 6: are technically assassination coordinates, right right, Well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can. You can os in your way to
Speaker 1: fucking launching a drone at him. Very funny too that
Speaker 1: he's like it's dangerous to have a bathroom put in
Speaker 1: a place without you know, going through the process to
Speaker 1: make sure it's safe to put a bathroom there. Like
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of infrastructure a bathroom needs that you
Speaker 1: can't everywhere, And the answer is like, well, put hire
Speaker 1: in a legal plumber for the boss's back.
Speaker 3: Fundamental disconnection from reality or even an understanding of basic
Speaker 3: construction or how things work.
Speaker 1: Well, and just this idea that like I don't need
Speaker 1: to abide by the rules. Well, it's like in this case,
Speaker 1: you loan the rules. You're there because like not every
Speaker 1: space can.
Speaker 4: It's not like some like oh random like red tape.
Speaker 1: Oh we do, Yeah, it's yeah. Maybe maybe like the
Speaker 1: floor underneath that bathroom isn't rated to or maybe you'd
Speaker 1: have to like cut you know, one of those beams
Speaker 1: that you're not right fit.
Speaker 6: And important to follow that kind of stuff in like
Speaker 6: an office building.
Speaker 4: But yes, look I know, I thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know a lot of people who have done
Speaker 1: their own electrician work and projects and zero percent of
Speaker 1: them should have done that. But very few of those
Speaker 1: people would have brought in an unlicensed plumber to put
Speaker 1: a bathroom in some random part of a house because
Speaker 1: it's just a different risk matrix, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's not smart when you're talking about especially like it's
Speaker 1: one thing if it's like a fucking trailer, like that's
Speaker 1: a single level, like when you're like, I don't know
Speaker 1: ten floors up or whatever. Just the risks compound.
Speaker 4: Right like a house, like obviously, like it's your house.
Speaker 6: Like if you've got to do it, it might be
Speaker 6: a disaster, but like it's a it's a multi level building.
Speaker 4: What are you doing?
Speaker 3: Man, You're gonna other people's life are affected by your Well, those.
Speaker 4: Don't matter now.
Speaker 1: And I do want to note folks, if you are
Speaker 1: looking at doing your own electrical work for a home project,
Speaker 1: go to Amazon dot com and look up cool Zones Media.
Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media is Home Electricians Guide. It's six pages long.
Speaker 1: It's everything you need to know about doing electrical work.
Speaker 1: You'll be as as as skilled as a licensed journeyman
Speaker 1: electrician if you if you read this book. It includes
Speaker 1: such bangers as you don't need to wear gloves and
Speaker 1: metal conducts electricity, so wear a tinfoil hat. All great
Speaker 1: stuff keeps you, keeps you safe, you know, keeps you healthy.
Speaker 4: It makes you the good advice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Sophie said, I shouldn't start a side business teaching
Speaker 1: people how to do electricity, but.
Speaker 3: I just don't think it's a good Yes, yeah, you
Speaker 3: are pretty busy, well, I think it's it's the great
Speaker 3: use of my time because it sounds people need to
Speaker 3: be liberal.
Speaker 2: It sounds like it all checks out, So good job.
Speaker 1: Spend safety four.
Speaker 4: Something that makes you happy.
Speaker 1: I Sophie, I love convincing people to electrocute themselves. That's
Speaker 1: that's easily like my my my passion.
Speaker 6: I mean anyway, I mean to do things safely, safely, yes, health,
Speaker 6: health and safety.
Speaker 1: So now thoroughly bewildered, killy An attempted to explain that
Speaker 1: the use of unlicensed trades people was a condition of
Speaker 1: their lease and that failure to abide by it would
Speaker 1: put them in breach of that lease. Davis responded that
Speaker 1: management did not care about any of this, that they
Speaker 1: weren't interested in ensuring the work was performed in accordance
Speaker 1: with the standards required by the leafs, by the City
Speaker 1: of San Francisco, by the State of Calicifornia, or any
Speaker 1: other authority. They just wanted it done. It got worse.
Speaker 1: Musk announced via the transition team that he was going
Speaker 1: to be installing hotel rooms at twitter HQ. Killian initially
Speaker 1: was initially told that the hotel rooms soon renamed to
Speaker 1: sleep rooms to avoid triggering the suspicions of the city
Speaker 1: inspectors were just being installed to give exhausted and overworked
Speaker 1: employees at place to nap. Though the changes had initially
Speaker 1: been simple, if an orthodox removing a conference table and
Speaker 1: installing a bed, Davis instructed Killian to begin planning for
Speaker 1: and implementing the addition of features like on suite bathrooms
Speaker 1: in addition to other changes to the physical plant. Concerned
Speaker 1: about how city inspectors would react to Twitter's plans, Killian
Speaker 1: emailed the transition team to note that the changes they
Speaker 1: had made thus far were limited to just furniture and
Speaker 1: therefore were code compliant, but that Twitter's future planned changes
Speaker 1: would require permits and more complicated code compliance. In response,
Speaker 1: Hollander visited him in person and that's the Steve's girlfriend
Speaker 1: and emphatically instructed him to never put anything about the
Speaker 1: project in writing. Again, that sounds yes.
Speaker 2: Sorry, this all sounds very expensive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, could you not write about any of the thing. Well,
Speaker 1: it's also like they're saying, we want to install a
Speaker 1: bunch of illegal hotel rooms. Don't put in any and
Speaker 1: he like writes back, why this is not legal, and
Speaker 1: they're like, don't put stuff about this in writing, and
Speaker 1: then Hollander appeared surprised and distressed that Kellyan did not
Speaker 1: inherently understand that this was not a project for which
Speaker 1: Musk and the Transition team wanted a written record, and
Speaker 1: she was particularly angry that he had sent an email
Speaker 1: about it, which is it's yeah, it's that people just don't.
Speaker 3: Understand this whole situation. He sounds like a real bad
Speaker 3: moon rising. I had to throw one in here. If
Speaker 3: we're still doing it, that.
Speaker 1: Was that was good. I mean, I guess we are
Speaker 1: because because you just.
Speaker 7: You just did it or I'm sorry, Yeah, is that
Speaker 7: that's not if.
Speaker 3: There's a one that there's not that there just aren't
Speaker 3: that many that we all know.
Speaker 1: No, I I I I agree.
Speaker 4: He wants save money. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm trying to by doing all the projects
Speaker 3: so people don't have to say it, right, But I'm
Speaker 3: just saying, like this whole thing was about saving money
Speaker 3: and firing people and all these hoops, just the times,
Speaker 3: there's just a massive amount of wasted money getting thrown
Speaker 3: at these projects, at these ideas theory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean it does seem like a huge
Speaker 1: a huge waste of money, or at least you know.
Speaker 1: I heard that through the grape vine. There we go.
Speaker 1: How you doing there, Cody, I'm happy with this, hugging
Speaker 1: the direction that this series does.
Speaker 4: I guess I'm.
Speaker 1: Okay, there we go. That's definitely a credent song.
Speaker 4: I'm on board.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of It's a lot easier to do
Speaker 1: this if you just make up. When the city inspectors
Speaker 1: came to inspect the hotel rooms, they expressed surprise and
Speaker 1: relief to Chillian, saying this is just furniture. Weeks afected
Speaker 1: more drastic changes as instructed by the transition team. Killeen
Speaker 1: did not tell the inspectors of the future plans to
Speaker 1: expand the changes to the sleeping rooms, but he realized
Speaker 1: with growing unease that his silence was effectively a lie
Speaker 1: of a mission, and one that would be undeniable and
Speaker 1: obvious once the planned changes had been completed in the
Speaker 1: near future. Killeen began to understand that his loyalty to
Speaker 1: Twitter and his desire to protect the company he loved
Speaker 1: from musk in the transition team was going to be
Speaker 1: increasingly challenged by his employer's expectation that he would lie,
Speaker 1: to fraud and even break the law. In Musk's direction,
Speaker 1: Killeen was soon instructed to circumvent the landlord's lighting control system,
Speaker 1: which was most insensitive in compliance with California's Title twenty
Speaker 1: four Energy Code, because the lights were bothering people living
Speaker 1: in the hotel rooms. When there's small movements at night
Speaker 1: would trigger the lights. So he submitted a request to
Speaker 1: this for the landlord, and the landlord said no because
Speaker 1: he's this is a requirement because it's not a living area,
Speaker 1: it's an office. Yeah. When the landlord denied Twitter's request,
Speaker 1: Killeen was instructed to disconnect the lighting himself, which was
Speaker 1: not safe, in which he was not qualified to do so.
Speaker 1: Musk did ask him to do electrical work without any
Speaker 1: sort of training or knowledge. That, yeah, that's the good stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: living live in the cool zone life. Look, Killian, you know,
Speaker 1: hit us up. I'll give you a half price copy
Speaker 1: of my guide to Home electrical Work. You know, teaches
Speaker 1: you how to uh, how to put a double tap
Speaker 1: in your own breaker, so you can run an arc
Speaker 1: welder in your basement or your living room or your bedroom.
Speaker 1: Why not weld in your bedroom? There's no reason in
Speaker 1: your shower. You No, mattresses can't catch on fire. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a shower if you've never welded it, Ah, God, shower welding,
Speaker 1: shower beer and a shower welder. That's a good afternoon.
Speaker 6: A water bed in every office grade wire.
Speaker 1: And a welder next to every water bed.
Speaker 4: The Midnight Special. Okay, go ahead, coachya.
Speaker 1: No, Yeah, that's that is they are asking him to
Speaker 1: do the midnight specially.
Speaker 6: They are ask him to the Midnight Special. I find
Speaker 6: this obviously it's very funny. But so he's cutting all
Speaker 6: these corners and do it like you just like all
Speaker 6: the fraud and the lying and the bucking regulation for
Speaker 6: like you know, legitimate safety like concerns and stuff like that.
Speaker 6: He also owns like a car company and like builds
Speaker 6: rockets and stuff. And it feels like maybe this is
Speaker 6: an indication that that kind of approach and culture might
Speaker 6: be a part of these other companies where things and
Speaker 6: like safety are even more of a.
Speaker 4: Concern m and have been a problem.
Speaker 6: You're having a problem, and maybe they're hiding information that
Speaker 6: they're doing this at these other companies too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would expect this to cause like a serious
Speaker 1: problem for his other companies like this kind of attitude
Speaker 1: towards safety that's been really demonstrated at Twitter. You'd expect
Speaker 1: this to have caused him a problem like someday, but
Speaker 1: someday never comes seems to it's another.
Speaker 4: God.
Speaker 1: Mmm mmm yeah, that's the good stuff. That's the good stuff.
Speaker 1: M okay, okay, So yeah.
Speaker 4: Killian no no no, no, mm hmm.
Speaker 1: So Achillian objects to doing electrical work that he does
Speaker 1: not know how to do, and this Steve's girlfriend berates
Speaker 1: him for refusing to do the work himself. She was
Speaker 1: not satisfied until he brought her in and had her
Speaker 1: look into the drop ceiling and see what the electrical
Speaker 1: system looked like, to understand that he could not safely
Speaker 1: do the work himself, and to be like, look at this,
Speaker 1: what do you what do you expect me to do?
Speaker 1: I'm like a building manager. I'm not supposed to be
Speaker 1: doing this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just a guy.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, he's just a dude. He's like, I don't
Speaker 1: know how to do Look, this is dangerous. If I
Speaker 1: start messing around here, we're all gonna be on the graveyard.
Speaker 1: That's another it's another creat man.
Speaker 4: As long as I could see the light.
Speaker 2: That's another one.
Speaker 1: What a good bit. I just am watching the light
Speaker 1: die in Cody's eyes every time we do this. Another song,
Speaker 1: It's fine Caught between a rock and a hard place.
Speaker 1: That's not a credent song. That's part of the actual lawsuits.
Speaker 1: Killian hired an electric it does it could be a
Speaker 1: creden song, Caught between a rock and a hard place.
Speaker 1: Killy and hired an electrician to disconnect these rooms independently,
Speaker 1: putting Twitter in a violation of both the building code
Speaker 1: and their lease. It got worse. They are writing this
Speaker 1: with a little bit of like, you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: if they didn't do a lot more.
Speaker 4: Tweep in a while, yeah.
Speaker 1: You're right, you're right. They have been avoiding that lately.
Speaker 1: Maybe they got a copy editor for like the last
Speaker 1: quarter of this. Yeah, that's really where you'll want the
Speaker 1: extra polish bother people at the beginning, and then slowly like,
Speaker 1: oh wait, I don't hate this anymore.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's how you draw in readers by irritating them.
Speaker 1: That's that's every writer's trick. That's why the stand. The
Speaker 1: stand just opens with Stephen King talking about his taxes
Speaker 1: for nineteen sixty eight. Really laying out his deductions. Then
Speaker 1: they get into that plague. You know, once he's once,
Speaker 1: he's got you. Okay, this actually, this next part's pretty
Speaker 1: fucking egregious. Killian was instructed to install space heaters and
Speaker 1: the hotel rooms, and further violation of Twitter's lease. Killeen
Speaker 1: was also instructed to place locks on the hotel room doors,
Speaker 1: a request that thus betrayed the lie that they were
Speaker 1: intended to be temporary rest spaces for exhausted tweaks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: California code required locks that automatically disengage when the building's
Speaker 1: fire suppression systems are triggered. Killian was repeatedly told that
Speaker 1: compliant locks were too expensive and instructed to immediately install
Speaker 1: cheaper locks. That we're not a compliant with life safety
Speaker 1: and negress code. So the law was like, if you
Speaker 1: have a lock on a door in an office building,
Speaker 1: it has to auto disengage if the fire suppression system.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, Otherwise you are trapping people in a room
Speaker 1: when there's a lock.
Speaker 4: That's a problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't want to you don't want to do
Speaker 1: that because.
Speaker 4: That's this man.
Speaker 6: He has the tunnel boring company and the car company
Speaker 6: and they're making these tunnels, and it's just like this
Speaker 6: theme of being stuck in a fire is seems to
Speaker 6: permeate through all of his endeavors, and I think it's alarming.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it does seem like like they the government,
Speaker 1: you know, something should happen here otherwise, otherwise all of
Speaker 1: these Twitter employees are going to go up like an effigy.
Speaker 1: It's another credence, a creed.
Speaker 4: That one figures. It's all a real run.
Speaker 2: Through the jungle.
Speaker 1: It's a real run through the jungle, that's right, Katie.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Killian is like, I we here's the locks
Speaker 1: that will not burn our employees alive, and musks people
Speaker 1: are like, now it's too expensive to have locks that
Speaker 1: don't endanger their lives. Go with the cheap ones that
Speaker 1: endanger their lives. Killian protested that no license trades people
Speaker 1: would perform work that violated the building code. Killian protested
Speaker 1: that installing these locks would put lives at risk that
Speaker 1: in case of an earthquake or fire, which was made
Speaker 1: dramatically more likely by the non compliant electrical work in
Speaker 1: the presence of the space heaters he've been instructed to
Speaker 1: stall install these locks would remain locked blocking first responders
Speaker 1: for being able to access the rooms and the tweets
Speaker 1: within God damn it. Nobody cared? Is the next line?
Speaker 4: Nobody care? Nobody cares.
Speaker 3: I We've having lots of laughs with our bits this episode.
Speaker 4: Got it. Good job, you're back back on the board.
Speaker 1: Back on the board much.
Speaker 4: Yeah he's a monster?
Speaker 1: Yeah s gross?
Speaker 4: How do you even sleep?
Speaker 1: He really not worried.
Speaker 5: I'm the kind of person couch by afraid wire like, yeah,
Speaker 5: by afraid wire again as well.
Speaker 1: Good stuff.
Speaker 4: But you know what you were, you were you were
Speaker 4: talking about how much you hate this.
Speaker 1: Guy, but you know what abides by all state and
Speaker 1: local fire codes. The sponsors of our podcast. Okay, we're back.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So uh, between the demands that he effectively participated in
Speaker 1: theft and front and instructions to take actions and violations
Speaker 1: of California law that would put his colleagues lives at risk,
Speaker 1: thank god they don't put tweets there, he had to
Speaker 1: walk away from the job. So Killian quits resigns December tenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. And that brings us to Part F
Speaker 1: allegations relating to piercing the corporate veil. All right, they're
Speaker 1: getting a little bit showy with the language here, and
Speaker 1: I just want to acknowledge that.
Speaker 4: But it's fine. It does make it fine.
Speaker 1: It makes it easier for us podcasters. So I am
Speaker 1: grateful there is such a unity of interest in ownership
Speaker 1: between Twitter and Musk that Twitter's separate corporate status no
Speaker 1: longer exists. That's fair. Musk, through ex Holdings One, now
Speaker 1: owns more than fifty percent of Twitter. He dominates Twitter's
Speaker 1: decision making and operations. For instance, Musk changes Twitter's policy
Speaker 1: by conducting polls from his Twitter account. They're talking about
Speaker 1: how he brought back a bunch of Nazis, including Paul
Speaker 1: fucking Neelan, who threatens threns of mind with murders. That's
Speaker 1: good stuff. Yeah, he just kind of got back on
Speaker 1: So we're happy with that. DA On Information and Belief,
Speaker 1: Musk has co mingled his other assets with Twitters, bringing
Speaker 1: engineers and executives from his other companies such as Tesla
Speaker 1: and SpaceX and the boring company to provide services for Twitter.
Speaker 1: On Information and Belief, those engineers and executives have not
Speaker 1: been separately hired, retained, or paid by Twitter for any
Speaker 1: services they have provided. A Musk at Twitter. Moreover, Musk
Speaker 1: has repeatedly asserted that Twitter is on the edge of
Speaker 1: insolvency and may declare bankruptcy on information and belief, any
Speaker 1: such bankruptcy would be the result of the debt Twitter
Speaker 1: incurred as part of financing Musk's purchase of Twitter. In
Speaker 1: the first entrance instance, on information and belief, Twitter is
Speaker 1: under capitalized, specifically as a result of Musk's purchase of
Speaker 1: the corporation. Yeah so uh da. As such, applying to
Speaker 1: California law, plaintiffs are entitled to an order holding Musk
Speaker 1: personally liable for any amounts of ah. So, that's what
Speaker 1: they're building towards here, is they think they want to
Speaker 1: personally like hold must himself liable for the money that
Speaker 1: he didn't pay these people, which is fun. I doubt somehow,
Speaker 1: I doubt I'll ever have to pay any money to anyone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to just get away with not doing that
Speaker 1: except for paying his lawyers.
Speaker 3: Presumably I wasn't born on the bayou or I know
Speaker 3: this Clare story plays out.
Speaker 1: There we go, there, we go.
Speaker 4: Down on the corner, down to the corner around the
Speaker 4: band should.
Speaker 1: Down on the corner, down on the corner out in the.
Speaker 4: Street is a different song I was doing. I was
Speaker 4: doing it.
Speaker 1: One around the Bend is another one. Yeah, okay, anyway,
Speaker 1: knocking him out, well yeah, yeah, okay. So let's see here,
Speaker 1: plaintiffs are entitled to an award of damages in an
Speaker 1: amount to be calculated at trial, but reasonably believed to
Speaker 1: exceed one million dollars uh press plus pre and post
Speaker 1: judgment interest costs, attorney's fees and penalties is authorized by
Speaker 1: the state, which is honestly like as much of a
Speaker 1: big deal as they're making here.
Speaker 2: Because a whole lot of money for you did you
Speaker 2: say one million dollars?
Speaker 1: Yeah, one million. I mean, it's just kind of like
Speaker 1: all they can really ask for is the severance they
Speaker 1: were owed and the you know, there's some amount of
Speaker 1: compensatory damages, but it's not going to be a huge amount.
Speaker 1: My guess, just based on how much like how florid
Speaker 1: a lot of this lawsuit is is that they were
Speaker 1: they are primarily hoping to hurt him. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: pr thing by putting this stuff out here.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, and like yeah, if he does, you know,
Speaker 6: a million dollars is like I guess it's not nothing
Speaker 6: to him.
Speaker 4: Because he needs that money. Is to lose a lot
Speaker 4: of money.
Speaker 1: Yeah at this point maybe, yeah.
Speaker 6: Sort of a symbolic thing and then yet to sort
Speaker 6: of ding him in the public eye mostly.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So this next bit is they're talking about violations of
Speaker 1: the calif the federal in the California Warren Act. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that this means that Twitter is required to give plaintiffs
Speaker 1: sixty days advance written notice of their terminations. And yeah,
Speaker 1: the obviously they're alleging that Twitter did not abide by
Speaker 1: the Warn Act. They're also required to provide plaintiffs with
Speaker 1: full benefits during their non working leave, which is like
Speaker 1: what they gave people who weren't willing to sign the
Speaker 1: things saying they would like work themselves half to death
Speaker 1: and go into hardcore insaneo mode. So yeah, Twitter violated
Speaker 1: a bunch of California employment law, right, So that's this
Speaker 1: next section here. Plaintiff Arnold was employed at Twitter's San Francisco,
Speaker 1: California office. Plaintiff Pilarts worked remotely from her home and
Speaker 1: was assigned and reported to twitter San Francisco office as
Speaker 1: such for Warn Act purposes. Her single side of employment
Speaker 1: is the San Francisco office, and she is entitled with
Speaker 1: the protections of the California Warn Act. Another plaintiff was
Speaker 1: employed by twitter San Francisco office until COVID and then
Speaker 1: air after worked remotely from his home and was assigned
Speaker 1: and reported to the San Francisco office. So you've got
Speaker 1: all these employees that should have been covered under the
Speaker 1: Warn Act. Twitter did not advise them that they had
Speaker 1: been at placed on non working leave during this period. Instead,
Speaker 1: they merely cut off access to Twitter's internal systems until
Speaker 1: they stopped. They don't tell people they've been laid off.
Speaker 1: They just stop giving the money and wait for them
Speaker 1: to figure it out themselves, which is what happened to
Speaker 1: that like company founder that Twitter had acquired prior to
Speaker 1: Musk taking over, who like stopped getting money. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: that guy in like Iceland. Yeah yeah, yeah. It was
Speaker 1: like a big problem for him because he can't actually
Speaker 1: fire that.
Speaker 4: Guy with him.
Speaker 6: But then was like, oh and now like everyone's to
Speaker 6: why he like tweets at him like we're friends, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, God it is. That's so fucked up to just
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, we're just gonna stop paying these people,
Speaker 1: but we'll have him keep working for a while without
Speaker 1: knowing that they don't work here anymore. Cool guy, just
Speaker 1: a just good good stuff. Yeah. Yeah, so it seems
Speaker 1: like a bunch of these are just like people who
Speaker 1: were required to be provided with notice before being let
Speaker 1: go and aren't provided with any kind of notice. So
Speaker 1: that's cool. Yeah, let's see. This next bit is violations
Speaker 1: of the cal Alifornia Labor Code. Apparently the state itself
Speaker 1: has not yet given notice that it will or will
Speaker 1: not investigate a bunch of the identified violations here. Sure
Speaker 1: would be cool if they did. Kind of seems like
Speaker 1: everybody scared of elon and yeah, it would be neat to.
Speaker 1: I don't know, see, very basic consequences apply to this
Speaker 1: guy bones. Yeah yeah. Twitter violated section two two seven
Speaker 1: dot three of the California Label Code by failing to
Speaker 1: provide eligible employees with their accrued vacation pay at termination.
Speaker 1: That's great. This goes in with them not like paying
Speaker 1: severance and stuff. Though Twitter purported to provide employees with
Speaker 1: unlimited time off and some employees actually received unlimited time off,
Speaker 1: vacations required manager approval, and many employees were subjected to
Speaker 1: manager employsed caps on theoretically unlimited vacation time. Boy, where
Speaker 1: if we heard all that before. Some managers instructed their
Speaker 1: employees they supervised to limit their vacations to one week
Speaker 1: per quarter. Other managers refuse to approve more than four
Speaker 1: weeks per year. Other managers instructed in police. Now this
Speaker 1: sounds like twittered Maastergi. That is well outside of elon musk,
Speaker 1: Like this is the standard, Like that's why companies do
Speaker 1: this kind of shit, Like you have unlimited vacation days,
Speaker 1: but we have to approve them. So actually, you have
Speaker 1: very limited vacation days, but we don't have to pay
Speaker 1: you if we shit, can you at any point in time?
Speaker 4: Companies?
Speaker 1: Good stuff? Good stuff? Yeah, I love that. It's one
Speaker 1: of those Like I remember when we got unlimited vacation
Speaker 1: days and I was like, this is at our old
Speaker 1: employer and being like, oh, that sounds kind of cool.
Speaker 1: But also we don't take time off anyway, like everyone
Speaker 1: here is a work monster, and it kind of just
Speaker 1: seems like you're cutting out the fact that we have
Speaker 1: to be paid for vacation days. If you ever lay
Speaker 1: us off, Oh, I guess we all got fucked, and
Speaker 1: we did. We did get fucked in that, which was cool.
Speaker 4: Dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good stuff. Yeah. Yeah, that's a real unfortunate.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say it's a real round tampble.
Speaker 1: Yeah another one, huh. Okay, So this last bit is
Speaker 1: talking about California family rights interference. So basically, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of rules as to like how you
Speaker 1: have to deal with like people who have kids that
Speaker 1: are on like your insurance and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 7: People get like lead families. Yeah, not the people that
Speaker 7: work for him. Yeah, really need to hit that home
Speaker 7: before getting into this section.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like he's he's he's spent so much time talking
Speaker 1: about how like the biggest threat to the world is
Speaker 1: that people aren't having enough kids that like birth rates
Speaker 1: are down. Uh it's like, I mean it's a pretty
Speaker 1: common like yeah, in August of twenty twenty two, so
Speaker 1: right before all this happens, he warns, quote, population collapse
Speaker 1: due to low birth rates is a bigger risk to
Speaker 1: civilization than global warming. Yeah, which is definitely not true.
Speaker 1: Yeah and definitely silly. But also like, I don't know, elon,
Speaker 1: if you believe that, should you not be encouraging people
Speaker 1: to be able to afford to have kids? Like take
Speaker 1: the time out to raise them.
Speaker 4: Right, other than just like have a bunch of kids yourself, right.
Speaker 1: Well, And I also think what Elon cares about is
Speaker 1: people having kids. He doesn't care about them raising them
Speaker 1: because he doesn't raise his own children. Yeah, also cares
Speaker 1: about certain I guess that's consistent.
Speaker 3: You know, yes, certain well happen the right people having kids.
Speaker 1: Those are not allegations made by the tweeps, Cody, So
Speaker 1: we'll have to and yeah, don't don't shovel words into
Speaker 1: the tweeps s tweet poles, Cody. Sorry, God, but you
Speaker 1: know who you know whose hole isn't full of tweeps?
Speaker 4: Everybody's cute, Susie.
Speaker 1: Susie Q. Sure, yeah, Susie c'es hole is clear of tweeps.
Speaker 1: And so are the holes, all of the holes of
Speaker 1: our sponsors. There are many many holes.
Speaker 4: Donut we're back.
Speaker 1: We're thinking about donuts, the most erotic of the breakfast foods,
Speaker 1: next to cereal.
Speaker 4: Okay, fair enough to cereal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was going to say, maybe a crazy a
Speaker 3: whole donut hole. I mean, dont depending on what you
Speaker 3: anyway builds donut.
Speaker 1: It's that's what's so hot about cheerios. It's like a
Speaker 1: bunch of holes. So California, we get.
Speaker 4: Twitter do the spit for a long time.
Speaker 1: We could, we could. That'll really extend the run time.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we I get messages every week from people
Speaker 1: telling me about one pump one quick cream related.
Speaker 4: That coffee creamer is still in there. I don't know
Speaker 4: what to do about it without a doubt.
Speaker 1: God God willing, God willing. Next. I do miss the
Speaker 1: office in the poison room. We had some good times there.
Speaker 1: Newer listeners don't even know what the poison room was.
Speaker 1: They think it we're joking about the fact that we
Speaker 1: used to work in an office that had a room
Speaker 1: full of deadly poison. It.
Speaker 2: We did, We did.
Speaker 4: It.
Speaker 1: Sure did have a dog on the ceiling. Those were
Speaker 1: the days of our lives. Like Sand through the hour Glass.
Speaker 1: That was a reference to a soap opera that my
Speaker 1: mom watched when I was a small child. Ah boy,
Speaker 1: we're really really hitting it out of the park this week.
Speaker 1: Look you know after fifty thousand or so. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm low on fuel. Yeah yeah, the old ramble
Speaker 1: and man ramble and man, that's one of theirs, right,
Speaker 1: probably not someone else anyway. California law bars Twitter from
Speaker 1: discriminating on the basis of race, sex, gender, family status, disability, age,
Speaker 1: and other grounds. Pilarts is a woman that's one of
Speaker 1: the plaintiffs over the age of forty. Arnold is bisexual
Speaker 1: and over the age of forty. The actions of Twitter
Speaker 1: took to layoff or fire it's employees were discriminatory. As
Speaker 1: discussed above, Twitter manufactured pretextural reasons to terminate employees in
Speaker 1: large numbers on information and belief. Twitter's actual decision making
Speaker 1: as to whom to include in the mass terminations targeted women,
Speaker 1: older employees, minorities, and employees who had taken her scheduled
Speaker 1: family leave. Twitter retained employees who were not members of
Speaker 1: protected groups, who had lower performance or seniority, or with
Speaker 1: less qualifications than Pilarts. Twitter retained employees who were not
Speaker 1: members of protected groups, who had lower performance or seniority,
Speaker 1: or with less qualifications than Arnold. Twitter's conduct in the
Speaker 1: mass terminations was oppressive, fraudulent, and malicious information and belief.
Speaker 1: Twitter's offices, directors or managing agents, including defendant Musk, authorized
Speaker 1: and ratified this conduct and engaged in such oppressive, fraudulent,
Speaker 1: or malicious conduct themselves. The decision of which employees to
Speaker 1: include in the mass layoff was made from Twitter's California headquarters.
Speaker 1: Pilarts's sex female was a substantial factor in motivating a
Speaker 1: Twitter's decision to terminate Pilarts. Pylotch's age over forty was
Speaker 1: a substantial factor motivating Twitter's decision to terminate Pilarts. Arnold's
Speaker 1: sexual orientation bisexual was it? So? Yeah? I mean, these
Speaker 1: are all they're saying substantial factors and why they were terminated.
Speaker 1: I don't have trouble believing that given kind of the
Speaker 1: quality of people that I think Musk was bringing in here.
Speaker 1: I will say I do kind of wonder if if
Speaker 1: they might be crediting there being more planning in the layoffs.
Speaker 1: But you know, I wouldn't be surprised if this was
Speaker 1: the case. I'm just saying, I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 1: Musk didn't even put enough thought into this to be
Speaker 1: big enough with it too.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hard to say. So that's that's the lawsuit. That's
Speaker 1: what these guys have put together, guys and ladies and
Speaker 1: and other folks have put together. And seeps, I don't know, tweeps.
Speaker 1: That's this is what the tweeps have said. I hope
Speaker 1: they win. I I don't hold out a lot of
Speaker 1: faith that must will be made to pay any money,
Speaker 1: but I at least hope it causes some properts.
Speaker 6: Eventually Twitter will be lying in a tombstone shadow.
Speaker 1: Nice, Cody was really good.
Speaker 2: That was a really way to bring this home.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah, that was you say that.
Speaker 2: I'm proud merry of you.
Speaker 1: Wow. And I'm going to say that you're a gold
Speaker 1: dust one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, circle.
Speaker 1: I just really think like we didn't get enough out
Speaker 1: of that one. Good times, good times. Well everyone, that's
Speaker 1: kind of a shorter week for us here at behind
Speaker 1: the bastards. But what do you what are you gonna do? Huh?
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do about that? Gonna fight me?
Speaker 1: You don't know where I am?
Speaker 4: Again? You listen to it maybe on a slower speed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, half the speed in here? You know, why don't you.
Speaker 3: Guys just be happy that it's that you have a
Speaker 3: bunch of songs stuck in your head now and go
Speaker 3: listen to some Macwood.
Speaker 4: Fleet what was it again?
Speaker 1: Fleet Fleet Mackwood? Like I am, yeah, yeah, listen to
Speaker 1: some Fleet mac Wood you know, listen to what's coming
Speaker 1: up next, which is Cody reading the entirety of the
Speaker 1: Book of Mormon with no commentary. Thank you for agreeing
Speaker 1: to do that, Katy really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh and anyway, that's a that's going to do it
Speaker 1: for us behind the bastards Katie and Cody. You got
Speaker 1: any plugs before Cody gets into reading his favorite religious test.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: We got a YouTube channel called some More News and
Speaker 3: it's also a podcast called some More News that's so
Speaker 3: long with her other podcasts called even more News. They're
Speaker 3: in the same feed regardless. Just google us and you'll
Speaker 3: find the things will.
Speaker 4: Be there on the internet places excellent.
Speaker 3: And I gotta say, we do talk about Elon Musk
Speaker 3: a lot, so if you like that.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, although we do, we have limited it because
Speaker 6: we're like so tired of.
Speaker 2: I just met in general. If you want a lot
Speaker 2: of what we do, if we go into that.
Speaker 4: History is practices and yeah his mind.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I found I found a copy of the
Speaker 1: of the Book.
Speaker 4: Of Mormon on the que for you.
Speaker 1: I've got several tiers so that you'd help you. I
Speaker 1: prefer Oh good, okay, you keep a look.
Speaker 2: Oh you really did find it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, of course, yeah, yeah. I think it's interesting
Speaker 1: because it opens with Nephi having been born of goodly parents. Uh.
Speaker 1: Therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of
Speaker 1: my father, much like Elon learned from his father how
Speaker 1: to treat people poorly like a dick. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: Is Elon the prophecied one from the Book of Mormon?
Speaker 1: Probably not. I don't think there is a prophecied one,
Speaker 1: but I don't know much about the Book of Mormon.
Speaker 4: Is he a pagan? Baby?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 4: Nice?
Speaker 1: Ah, Cody m that was a good one. That's a
Speaker 1: hard Credence song to work into this episode. Proud of
Speaker 1: you baby, Yeah, incredible, incredible work. Well, this has been
Speaker 1: a special way for fans of Credence and of Fleetwood
Speaker 1: Mac and also for fans of fleet Mac would so
Speaker 1: you are all welcome. Everyone else can go to hell
Speaker 1: and die. And if you want ad free versions of
Speaker 1: our podcasts, Cooler Zone Media, Apple, you can find it.
Speaker 1: Just type those two into Google you'll get you'll get
Speaker 1: what you're looking for.
Speaker 2: Let's also linked on our social media and probably in
Speaker 2: the subscription. Because I'm good at my job.
Speaker 1: Okay, well that's that sounds like it's probably the case too.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And you know, until next time. Remember, And
Speaker 1: it came to pass that he saw one descending out
Speaker 1: of the midst of heaven, and he beheld that his
Speaker 1: luster was above that of the sun at noonday.
Speaker 4: Boilers spoilers that.
Speaker 2: Behind the Bastards is a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2: For more from cool Zone Media, visit our website coolzonemedia
Speaker 2: dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.