Common Sense Skeptic: MUSK ON TRIAL - SolarCity Bailout Day1, Pt2
1/20th of the way done with this stupid series.
Disclaimer
I am not a laywer. This does not constitute legal advice. I am simply going to point out Common Sense Skeptic’s mistakes and deceptive practices.
Also, this video is so packed with misinformation and outright lies, it is taking me far longer than normal to get through everything and present the nuance CSS tends to leave out when needed. Check back for updates.
Introduction
On August 24 2014, Common Sense Skeptic released this video, detailing the second quarter of the first day of transcripts for Elon Musk’s SolarCity trial. (Attachment 459).
As a fun little note, at this pace of two weeks per video, going over 1/4th of a day’s worth of transcripts, Common Sense Skeptic will be halfway done with the trial by the end of April, 2022.
The Problems
0:31 - An Attempt Wasn’t Even Made
We continue with Randall Baron's cross-examination of the first witness of the proceedings, Elon Musk. Coming back after the morning recess, Baron addresses a statement the Musk made about Tesla's sale of power walls with panels as being the only scalable solution for solar, and in that exchange Baron allows Musk to talk himself into a corner with regards to that statement. Musk starts tripping over his answers with explanations that are generally condescending gibberish. In fact, this section of page 70 in print is pretty much unreadable. And just like that, Baron has Musk back on edge following a chance to relax over the break.
This is like listening to sports commentary, except less intelligent. Not a single factual argument, just wholesale dismissal of Musk’s statements, and impossible deductions into Musk’s state of mind based on typed transcripts. It appears CSS is putting in even less effort than the first video, and projecting their desires onto the text.
Since CSS couldn’t be bothered to do more than briefly highlight this section, I’ll do it.
Baron: Mr. Musk, before we move on to some issues of control, you said something on direct examination, and perhaps you could help me out or give me a greater explanation. You said something to the effect of now that you are selling solar panels with the Powerwall, it is -- I think your quote was -- the only scalable solution. What do you mean by that?
Musk: That in order to solve sustainable energy, there are three things that are needed; that is, sustainable energy generation, storage -- stationary storage -- and sustainable transport.
Baron: Well, what does that have to do with scalability?
Musk: In order to -- once solar goes above a certain threshold of installation, you have to stabilize the grid in some fashion.
Baron: I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you said.
Musk: You have to stabilize the energy grid. So if you have a lot of solar installed in a neighborhood, then you are obviously going to get power spikes during the day, and then power will drop off at night. And so in order to get to very large scale residential solar or commercial solar, you have to combine that with a battery to stabilize the grid.
Baron: So by large cell -- large scale solar, very large scale, meaning in order to continue to be able to deploy solar on a lot of houses at a profitable rate, then you need to have the Powerwall. Is that an accurate assessment?
Musk: First of all, from a total system standpoint, that you have to have some means of buffering energy at night or when there is a dark cloud overhead in order to achieve a sustainable energy future.
Baron: And last question on this. Are you using the word scalability like in the business sense, in order to reach a size and profitability, we need to do this together? Were you using scalability in that sense?
Musk: No, I'm simply saying that from a physics standpoint, you have to have -- you have to store the -- you have to store solar energy so that the -- you can keep the lights on at night. And -- yeah, obviously, because otherwise it doesn't work at
scale, at large scale. Nothing to do with profits or anything. It's just -- this is just -- and this is not how I think of things either. It's we need to achieve a sustainable energy solution for the world, and in order to do so, you have to have the three elements of sustainable energy generation, stationary storage or batteries, and electric vehicles.
It certainly paints a different picture than CSS’ colorful commentary. I fail to see where Musk “talked himself into a corner” or where “Baron has Musk back on edge”.
1:08 - Just Making Things Up
Baron goes back to his line of pre-recess questioning, starting off with issues of control.
This actually has nothing to do with the pre-recess questioning. Pre-recess questioning had to do with the effects of COVID on the solar industry, and the timeline of when Tesla Solar personnel were reassigned back off of Model 3 production.
Baron asks Musk directly “Will you agree with me that sort of fundamental to Elon Musk, to you, is this core belief that you don't want somebody else to tell you to do what you don't want to do?” Musk answers with a pre-prepared falsehood, based on paraphrased memes bearing his name, that he actually views credible feedback as a gift. His disdain for people who oppose him is well documented. His rage firings of people who don't agree with him are well publicized. His treatment of board members and executives throughout his career is also a testament that this statement is false. Put simply, Musk removes people who don't agree with him.
CSS really has thrown out any semblance of effort. It took me all of thirty seconds to find this interview where Musk talks about the importance of seeking out feedback, especially from friends, yet CSS passes it off as Musk answering based on memes.
CSS then goes on to show a series of article to prove that Musk fires anybody who disagrees with him. The first article is about Tim Higgins’ book, which both Elon Musk and Tim Cook are on record as saying an incident detailed in the book having never occurred, but any source is good enough for CSS, as long as it says bad things about Musk.
1:47 - I Don’t Even Know
Now comes one of the very few portions of this day of testimony that made the news. Baron asks Musk if the reason why he has, in Musk's own words, his own companies, is so that he can do what he wants when he wants. Musk's answer was as follows: “Well I, to be totally frank, I actually don't want to be the boss of anything. I don't want to be a manager. I don't like being the CEO, and I tried very hard not to be the CEO of Tesla, frankly. But, unfortunately, I had to or the company was going to die.”
This is where the press pool covering the day wet their collective panties.
Common Sense Skeptic often states that they use simple mathematics, examples, facts, and logic, in order to teach critical thinking skills.
…
Yeah.
2:21 - What Contradiction?
Musk continues, “So I do not like management, frankly, and I don't like being the boss of anyone. But there are certain important things that need to get accomplished and that are important to the future of the world, and so then I have to sometimes be the boss, I suppose. I rather hate it and I would much prefer to spend my time on design and engineering which I intrinsically like doing, but I do not like being a manager.”
You caught that, right? Musk rather hates being the boss, and the company would die without him, etc… etc… Or so he claims now, because he's thinking it will earn him sympathy for being a martyr of sorts.
… but the thing is Baron already has Musk on tape answering that question he just asked. It's a video clip from the Clean Tech Summit of 2011 and Musk didn't like the fact that this was brought up at all. Here's why.
CSS then plays a clip from the summit where Musk is speaking.
“I will give you a little bit of background on why Tesla, why SolarCity, and some of the other things that I've done. And I certainly never expected to see the level of success that's occurred because I'm actually an engineer. And -- but I discovered that in order to do the engineering that I want to do, I have to have my own company; otherwise, somebody makes me do something I don't want to do.”
It’s essentially the same answer. Again, I am not a lawyer, but Baron appears to be trying to get Musk to admit he has his own companies so he can do whatever he wants, engineering or otherwise. No boss to tell him he can’t do what he wants, ergo no board can tell him he can’t do what he wants. But in both instances, Musk was specific that he wants to do the engineering that he is interested in.
CSS, however, takes the two statements as contradictory:
With this, Baron is able to answer his own question using Musk's words which completely contradict the answers he just gave on the stand.
3:49 - Engineer vs Professional Engineer
And buried in this video clip statement is another lie that Musk likes to tell people. He says he's an engineer. He is not. He does not have the education or credentials or license to call himself an engineer. The hiring website Monster goes through what being a professional engineer entails.
This continues for some time, with CSS making no distinction between the protected title of Professional Engineer, and the word engineer. If Musk has ever signed off on plans, or called himself a Professional Engineer, then yes, he would most likely be lying.
One further issue on this topic, is when CSS quotes part of the applicable Texas statute, but not all of it.
Also as it turns out, Musk just moved to Texas, taking up residence in a 50 square meter container home and texas has some pretty strict definitions as to who can and who can't call themselves an engineer. Under section 137.3 of the Texas Administrative Code, the first sentence of which reads “A person may not use the name title or words that convey to the public that a person is offering to perform engineering services to the public, unless licensed under the requirements of the act.” Musk is not an engineer
CSS shows a screenshot of this act, but not a complete screenshot. It is a photoshopped screenshot(there is no whitespace between (2) and (3)) where they only shows subsections 1 and 2. I wonder why? From their source:
§137.3 Other Use of Term “Engineer”
A person may not use the name, title, or words that convey to the public that a person is offering to perform engineering services to the public unless licensed under the requirements of the Act. The Act allows for the use or variation of the term “engineer” in a limited manner as summarized in this section.(4) Pursuant to §1001.062(b) of the Act, a person who is a regular full-time
employee of a private business entity that implements the design or specification
sealed by an engineer licensed under the Act may use the term “engineer” in the
person’s job title or personnel classification if the person does not use the
designation in conjunction with an offer to perform engineering services for the
public.
(5) Pursuant to §1001.066(2) of the Act, a person employed by a business entity
whose products or services consist of space vehicles, services or technology required by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) may use the terms "engineer" or "engineering" in the person's job title or personnel classification if the person only uses the designation in association with the products and services related to NASA.
5:24 - Continuity
The statement about being an engineer Common Sense Skeptic took exception to happened on page 73 of the transcript. Then, CSS shows a previous question from page 71, and claims Baron has to cut Musk off on page 75. That’s nowhere near accurate.
5:43 - No Skepticism In Sight
And the next question that Baron asks, Musk tees him up.
This isn’t skepticism. This is bias.
“…the world sees you as the controller of Tesla. Correct?” To which Musk replies “No.” Musk has the audacity to claim that people on the street wouldn't believe he is the controller of Tesla. Further, Musk tells the lawyer and the court that it must have been the lawyers who told such a thing to the press for them to publish.
Baron makes the claim that “99 percent of those articles say Elon Musk is the controller of Tesla”. Musk didn’t just bring it up. Further, CSS doesn’t investigate this issue at all. A Google News search for various terms returns the following number of results:
Elon Musk “controller of Tesla”: 1 result, about the trial, doesn’t claim Musk is the controller.
Elon Musk “Tesla controller”: 89 results, none seem to be about the trial.
Elon Musk “control of Tesla”: 4,000+ results, the ones about the trial state that whether or not Musk controls Tesla is the debate at the center of this trial.
I can’t find a single news article calling Musk the controller of Tesla.
His denial goes on for two pages, until Baron reminds Musk on page 77 how Musk signs off on his own 10-Ks for Tesla, where Musk writes of himself through his signature: “We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, our Chief Executive Officer, Product Architect, Chairman of the Board… and largest shareholder.”
Does anybody actually think Elon Musk is writing these SEC filings? This is listed under the Risk Factors section, this information is crafted by lawyers to avoid l
If the current 10-Ks still say something of this nature, they ignore the fact that Robin Danholm is actually the Chairperson of the Board and has been since November 8th of 2018, and ignoring that fact is kind of reflected on their website where she is over here instead of over here.
Again, this isn’t skepticism. CSS doesn’t fact-check, just accepts whatever Baron says and speculates. It’s not particularly difficult.
2020: “We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, our Chief Executive Officer and largest stockholder.”
2019: “We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, our Chief Executive Officer and largest stockholder.”
2018: “We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, our Chief Executive Officer and largest stockholder.”
2017: “We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, our Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of our Board of Directors and largest stockholder.”
So, there is no problem, but CSS doesn’t check to see if the problem exists, but postulates on its possible existence. This is not skepticism.
6:51 - Curiosity Killed The Cat
Baron continues reading from the 10-K form. “His [Musk’s] leaving the company could disrupt operation delay the development or introduction of our products and services and negatively impact our business prospects and operating results,” end quote. Just for our own curiosity is there any other company out there that includes such drivel in their 10-Ks?
Yes. Of course, CSS is not a skeptic, and doesn’t do any research, but just assumes this is an ego trip for Musk.
Alphabet
Amazon
Apple
Berkshire Hathaway
I could go on and on, but there is a clear pattern. For companies which are mostly faceless, such as CVS, the Key Personnel Risk Factor generally only mentions “executive officers” and the like. For companies with public, well-known CEOs, they tend to go into more detail.
6:59 - A Blog Post
CSS spends the next three minutes following Baron’s line of reasoning that Musk unilaterally writing two blog posts demonstrates his complete control of the company.
Yes. Apparently, the Chief Executive Officer can’t write a blog post without running it by the board, according to these two. I am not a lawyer, but that doesn’t seem right to me.
8:04 - Fact Checking Is Too Hard For Skeptics
…yet in the Master Plan Part 1 blog written in 2006, and still on the Tesla website, Musk was apparently already referring to himself as the Co-Founder and CEO of Tesla Motors. If that was the case it would have been a full year before the actual CEO Martin Eberhardt was driven out of his own company by Musk. Musk attempts to deny he was presenting himself as CEO in 2006 and that that area gets automatically filled in by the blog application, but if you take a look at the Master Plan Part Deux, there is no automatic filling in of that same information. All it says is Elon Musk with no title.
Musk didn’t say it is automatic, that’s a complete fabrication by CSS. But once again, CSS can’t be bothered to fact check. Here is the page as of August 2006. No CEO title.
That’s all for now because I want to gouge my eyes and ears out.