Brianna Wu / John Walker Flynt - "Biggest Victim of Gamergate," Failed Game Developer, Failed Congressional Candidate

[GleamingTheQ-Bert]

Wu hired freelance coders off craiglist and paid them a dollar an hour with the promise that when revolution 60 became a billion dollar multimedia franchise they'd end up winning because it would look great on their resumes. Some of it is the employee's fault for being naive enough to believe that massive load of crap but it's still a dick move.

Ninja'd by @Keystone

This, exactly, as well as @Keystone . I think the legalistic turn of phrase was something along the lines of "$1, and for all other considerations..." which John helpfully informed us was standard Jew Lawyer contract boilerplate to be legally able to dick employees with impunity....though I recall some Kiwi suggesting said phrasing was not all that unusual. Actually, @AnOminous ? Is this a typical wording, or is Wu really abusing her employees?

 

[proteus4994]

While I agree with you in principle, look at two big expenditures those kind of people go over their heads with - cars and housing. Frank's got them living like an $80k household in those two respects. They certainly aren't buying clothes at Neiman Marcus - John's been wearing the same black dress and gut belt for years.

I mean, maybe if someone shows a massive prescription pill habit, I could see it. Frank makes big mistakes like GiantSpaceMoneypit but he doesn't seem to live a lifestyle that incurs debt.

You make a good point and I'm likely to agree, but I'm wondering if we know the full extent of how much money Frank poured into GSK and Brianna's other stupid hobbies.

I also wonder if we know how much money Frank pisses away on himself that Brianna doesn't mention. I mean, Frank bought a '15/'16 Challenger that kinda flew under the radar until someone drove past their house and snapped a picture of it. It's possible Frank buys expensive toys too, and Brianna just doesn't care because it's not about her her her so she doesn't mention it.

I just really get that "fake rich" vibe from Frank and Brianna that you do from people like software engineers making $150,000 in Silicon Valley or high school graduates making $100,000 working 80 hours a week at the shipyard in Virginia, where in reality they're middle-class at best because they piss away their money on dumb shit.

 

[Dorsia.Reservation]

John's "company" that he was in charge of for Revolution 60 would pay all employees $1 guaranteed. I forget the exact wording, but he would decide what the rest of the payment would be. So basically he could pay all his employees 1 dollar only and then give them good boy points or pats on the back for a job well done, and that would fulfill the contractual obligation.

What a true feminist!

 

[multiverse]

There was a lot of stuff in there that Flynt/Wu won't regard as puffery.

Right? It was a good read - the reporter was not at ALL charmed by Wu, and did a very good job of remaining neutral while making pointed observations about Wu's chronic oversharing combined with poor comprehension, and just generally finds her dingy, and by the last day is wishing herself anywhere but in an uber with the nonstop talking tranny who can't find her own car so the reporter has to ride with Brianna to find the car instead of go to the airport. Brianna is compared to Trump in the article - an off the cuff tweeter who doesn't really understand how government works. There's even an allusion to her tranny-status when the writer purposefully points out that "Brianna" is 6'2".


Anyone who hasn't read through it - it's not a anything like the HuffPo piece.

 

[Dr. Merkwurdichliebe]

The fact that they're paying $2000/mo for that house that far outside of Boston (30 minutes outside of Boston isn't that far, but it's far enough that housing prices drop significantly) leads me to believe that their credit is shot, and they're paying under the table because their credit is too shit to get a real rental.

Note this is completely separate as to whether they're hurting for money. But I'm like 90% sure their credit is absolutely garbage.

Frank Wu has been making decent coin for a long, long time. Isn't he like 53 years old? If he was even halfway responsible with his money, paying $400,000 to bring Flynt/Wu's idiotic video game to life would be a hit to his retirement savings, but it wouldn't ruin his credit.

Flynt/Wu, on the other hand, has no work history other than a brief stint as a clerk at GameStop and no credit score whatsoever other than as Mrs. Frank Wu. If Frank dumps him, he'll be running his congressional campaign from a homeless shelter.

 

[Cyber Bowling]

I think the most surprising thing in the article is confirmation that Wu can actually drive. I thought the recent Audi spurging was just Wu having run out of things to pretend to know about his motorcycle.

 

[Dr. Merkwurdichliebe]

I think the most surprising thing in the article is confirmation that Wu can actually drive. I thought the recent Audi spurging was just Wu having run out of things to pretend to know about his motorcycle.

I've always found the "Flynt/Wu doesn't have a driver's license" narrative unconvincing.

Flynt/Wu had a vehicle (paid for by mommy and daddy) during his 10-year college career. (He once received a ticket for failing to keep the vehicle inspection sticker up to date. He had to pay a fine. But he was not also ticketed for driving without a license.) When he moved to Colorado and then to Massachusetts, all he had to do was turn in his license from his previous state of residence, pay the fee, and have photo taken for the license in his new location.

It was, however, nice of him to recently confirm that he doesn't have -- and has failed the written test for -- a motorcycle operator's license.

 

[Jaded Optimist]

You look at John Walker Flynt and tell me that's not a man who abuses prescription drugs.

Speaking of...

Can anyone fill me in on the rehab/ambien thing? I haven't see much about it besides a few jokes from other kiwis.

 

[AnOminous]

This, exactly, as well as @Keystone . I think the legalistic turn of phrase was something along the lines of "$1, and for all other considerations..." which John helpfully informed us was standard Jew Lawyer contract boilerplate to be legally able to dick employees with impunity....though I recall some Kiwi suggesting said phrasing was not all that unusual. Actually, @AnOminous ? Is this a typical wording, or is Wu really abusing her employees?

I've usually seen that kind of language when real estate was trading hands. The people doing the sale don't want it on public record at the recorder's office exactly what was paid. Or that's just written into the contract by whoever does it mainly because that's how they've done it for however many years.

I'm not sure why an employment contract would have that language, but if John only paid employees a dollar for the entirety of their work, we'd have seriously heard about that already. It just keeps the actual amount off the record. I'm not sure why John would go out of his way to mention that shit publicly, though, because it just instantly looks bad and makes people assume the worst.

 

[Elbe]

Brianna Wu - Prophet

 

[Yellow Yam Scam]

John's "company" that he was in charge of for Revolution 60 would pay all employees $1 guaranteed. I forget the exact wording, but he would decide what the rest of the payment would be. So basically he could pay all his employees 1 dollar only and then give them good boy points or pats on the back for a job well done, and that would fulfill the contractual obligation.

There's no actual evidence of this other than Wu tweeting and saying it happened in regards to unnamed employees. I don't believe it to be true for a second, I'm pretty sure Wu just wanted to butt her way into a twitter conversation and didn't realize how cruel it sounded for her to claim to do such a thing.

 

[PhantomDiploma]

Brianna Wu - Prophet

Brianna Wu is like a reverse Cassandra for retards, she lost over half a million in failed tech ventures and is still taken seriously by the usual orbiters.
It's also difficult to look up those predictions considering they were all made on Twitter and some sort of glitch seems to have erased all her past tweets.

 

[Quack]

I've usually seen that kind of language when real estate was trading hands. The people doing the sale don't want it on public record at the recorder's office exactly what was paid. Or that's just written into the contract by whoever does it mainly because that's how they've done it for however many years.

I'm not sure why an employment contract would have that language, but if John only paid employees a dollar for the entirety of their work, we'd have seriously heard about that already. It just keeps the actual amount off the record. I'm not sure why John would go out of his way to mention that shit publicly, though, because it just instantly looks bad and makes people assume the worst.

Yeah, I'd heard of it as a US real estate peculiarity, where massive houses would sell for "Ten dollars, and other valuable consideration". The fact it was on an employment contract made me wonder if somebody without proper qualifications wasn't cargo-culting it from a real estate attorney or something.

 

[Oh Long Johnson]

Brianna Wu - Prophet

The solution to an ineffective Congress is to propose socialist legislation you won't get your own party to agree to?

I strongly urge future members of the press that interview this abomination to ask John to talk about this at length.

 

[girlwhateva]

Brianna Wu - Prophet

Right on anti establishment thing but so wrong on the feminism, blm and how they need to more far left. Its not going to attract Republicans but what does Flynt even know about politics. Trump 2020

 

[Elbe]

It's also difficult to look up those predictions considering they were all made on Twitter and some sort of glitch seems to have erased all her past tweets.

Hey Cynical Sarah, these things happen!

 

[Dr. Merkwurdichliebe]

I've usually seen that kind of language when real estate was trading hands. The people doing the sale don't want it on public record at the recorder's office exactly what was paid. Or that's just written into the contract by whoever does it mainly because that's how they've done it for however many years.

I'm not sure why an employment contract would have that language, but if John only paid employees a dollar for the entirety of their work, we'd have seriously heard about that already. It just keeps the actual amount off the record. I'm not sure why John would go out of his way to mention that shit publicly, though, because it just instantly looks bad and makes people assume the worst.

This.

I see the odd wording of Flynt/Wu's employment agreements as nothing more that what he doubtless views as a clever way of concealing how little he paid his contract employees. The fact that he classified all of them as contractors also allowed him to avoid tax-withholding expenses and FICA paperwork.

The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require independent contractors to be paid minimum wage. Classifying his workers as contractors also meant that Flynt/Wu did not have to deal with any of the state tax or federal tax and FICA withholding paperwork. That became the employee's responsibility. The employees also became responsible for the employer's portion of all FICA and tax withholding. It also meant that Flynt/Wu didn't have to pay state unemployment and worker compensation fees.

In short, here's what progressive congressional candidate Flynt/Wu denied his workers by classifying them all as independent contractors:

• The right to minimum wage, overtime pay
• The right to unpaid, job-protected family and medical leave
• Certain anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation protections
• The availability of workers’ compensation if you are injured on the job
• The availability of unemployment insurance (UI)
• Employer payment of half of the Social Security and Medicare Taxes

On the other hand, Flynt/Wu is such a shrieking control freak that there is no way that his employees actually met the legal definition of independent contractors as they slaved away in Flynt/Wu's attic under his direct supervision and constant stream of abuse and criticism.

I wonder if Flynt/Wu is aware of the following: "When an employee is misclassified as a contractor and the situation is brought to the attention of the government, monetary penalties, potential prison terms and back wage payments CAN follow."

 

[Kosher Dill]

I wonder if Flynt/Wu is aware of the following: "When an employee is misclassified as a contractor and the situation is brought to the attention of the government, monetary penalties, potential prison terms and back wage payments CAN follow."

None of the employees will ever come forward though. Whatever money they could extract from John isn't worth having him and Frank become their personal Vordraks.

 

[Apteryx Owenii]

Not to mention that the use (and sometimes misuse) of contractors in software development is not abnormal and they may not have been misclassified in this instance. Even some larger companies (that actually produce real games) use a lot of contractors who often end up being out of work when the game is done until a new project comes along. Since the onus of dealing with taxes is on the payee the whole "1$ +whatever" might have several uses as well (though the most obvious is probably still to avoid paying a 'real' wage)

 

[Dr. Merkwurdichliebe]

None of the employees will ever come forward though. Whatever money they could extract from John isn't worth having him and Frank become their personal Vordraks.

Flynt/Wu's employees don't have to come forward. Anyone can contact the IRS and FICA. And when government agents show up to depose his former workers, I don't see any of them committing perjury to protect Flynt/Wu.

The feds will also find it interesting that Flynt/Wu has always called these people "my employees," not "my contractors." (It just doesn't give Flynt/Wu the credit he deserves if he has to admit that all of the work on "his" game was actually done by contractors who, by law, did not work under his direct control.)

As for John and Frank retaliating against witnesses in a federal investigation -- we should be so lucky.

I'm sure that Rep. Lynch has a buddy or two who would be happy to get the ball rolling next year as the primary approaches.