CEO David Siegel threatens to fire employees if Barack Obama's re-elected - VIDEO
Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 10:00 AM
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| David Siegel pictured on his throne |
But this week he's become the public face of the new plutocracy. The plutocracy that are the main backers of the Romney/Ryan campaign, that is.
In a move that seems to have been crafted by Charles Dicken's to cause the maximum outrage Siegel, the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, one of the largest developers in the world, sent an apparently threatening email to all eight thousand of his hardworking employees suggesting that they will all be fired if Barack Obama is reelected.
Siegel and his wife Jackie came to prominence this year as the subjects of the documentary film The Queen of Versailles, which followed their quest to build the largest house in America, a 30 bedroom, 90,000 square foot monument to gaudy billionaire excess (including a golden throne for Siegal to sit in).
But their fabulous 1% lifestyle contrasts very sharply with the desperate anxiety they have just created in their own workforce.
Today they have also become the living symbols of the high handed heartlessness of a potential Romney/Ryan administration.
Siegel told Gawker yesterday that he has no retreats about posting the threatening email. Although it did resemble a 2008 chain letter, he said the sentiments it expressed matched his own: 'I did use the letter that had circulated before as a guideline, but I changed it to fit my circumstances. It speaks the truth and it gives employees something to think about when they go to the polls.'
If the big boss doesn't like the results the little people are going to suffer. Pretty nasty stuff.
There was a time when our gilded plutocrats made their threats in code or by implication. Apparently we can dispense with those times. Now we can just adopt the banana republic method where the powers that be can send you a blunt message telling you what will happen if you vote the wrong way.
It's appropriate in many more ways than he intended that the house he built has became known as Versailles. That was Marie Antionette's estate. I'm sure he missed the irony.
Despite himself Siegel has just unwittingly reminded us what this election is all about. He has reminded us exactly the kind of man who stands to benefit most from a Romney Ryan presidency.
72 Comments
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shuvonn | Oct 22, 2012, 08:27 AM EDT
Have you even looked at what Obamacare is? It relies heavily on personal choice, something you seem to have difficulty grasping so simple a concept. And before Obamacare your employer could drop, change policy anytime they wanted to and then you would either have to pay yourself, pay more than you did or take a lesser policy offered.You already DO pay and dearly for those who are uninsured as when they get sick they have to be covered anyway. I notice you did not respond to my direct questions just go on whipping up the fear. I guess your non response is response enough and I have not mentioned the 1%.Surely that aforementioned 1% have many more assets than a home, they have HOMES, and many of them. And lets get this straight its not only the 1% that own property, the 47% own property, but they do not count to the R/R/Republicans, they are just retirees, former members of the military and it is arrogant and ignorant not mention oblivious to the reality of every day lives of people who are not millionaires to suggest they are not taking personal responsibility for their lives. That is not who should be in the white house ever!
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BrianO | Oct 21, 2012, 09:15 AM EDT
No scam, how do you pay for the Government health scheme...tax people on the sale of their homes 3.8%, I'm waiting to her the wails when this comes to pass in January, but I'm sure that 3,8% of what is most peoples only asset will effect only the !% you demonize.
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shuvonn | Oct 20, 2012, 06:58 PM EDT
do YOU pay extra for your wifes/daughters birth control or do you allow your health coverage to pay for it? No scam here and your inability to comprehend 2700 pages is not my issue :-) I never said government was my parent, how could the government be my parent when I pay for my own health insurance?? So simple a concept yet you cannot grasp it?? So don't even try to infer or lie about that one. There was NO coverup, Obama referred to it as a *act of terror* so open your own eyes and you seem to forget that what happens in Vegas stays in vegas and did you remember what Bush said about the 9/11 attacks.....
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BrianO | Oct 19, 2012, 01:43 PM EDT
Birth control is legal just buy it. Obamacare is a scam, that is why it is 2700 pages. Try standing on your own two feet. Government is not a parent. The farther from the source the least feeling and more wastful a system becomes. Signed, Brickwall. So did the great one coverup the terrorist attack with his minnions to spread the youtube video sham? open your eyes, stand up for yourself, or go to Las Vegas like your concerned leader did the day after the Lybia assassinations.
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shuvonn | Oct 18, 2012, 07:51 AM EDT
It's like talking to a brick wall, I watch BBC America for my news, I find it so much less biased and partisan than most US tv stations. And personally I would prefer Obama than someone who puts women in a binder and will try to deny them health care and birth control ( who passed Obamacare and now flip flopped) My eyes are wide open unlike yours it would appear. Why don't you do a little googling yourself about the Republican blocking 300 million for embassy security prior to the Ben Ghazi attack? Why don't you simply not take advantage of the benefits of Obamacare thus far? Should your employer change insurance providers, pay for yourself if you have a pre-existing condition.Pay for your own college age kids between 18-26. Pay more for your wife/daughters/mothers health care for preventative services. If you have a business do not avail of the tax credis for providing health care. All of those things are already in place and taken care of in Obamacare,as well as increases have to be justified by the insurance company. I suggest you might miss them if Romney/Ryan gets their way. And it's getting a bit too cold for flip flops :-) As far as I am concerned Nobody puts Shuvonn in a binder :-)
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BrianO | Oct 18, 2012, 02:26 AM EDT
shuvon Google obama and waivers. Checkout the view, letterman, rice, and cnbc for ben ghazi. its time to open your eyes, he's an empty suit.
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BrianO | Oct 18, 2012, 02:24 AM EDT
shuvon, was the greatone on Letterman and told the video fantasy? did he not tell the samr fantasy on the view? did he not send out his representatives to spread the same lie. i know how they work, to quote Bill Clinton " it depends on what the meaning of is, is". Either your in the sack for BO or you are blind. just Googled Obama and waivers--ex.--Documents released in a classic Friday afternoon news dump show that labor unions representing 543,812 workers received waivers from President Barack
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/06/labor-unions-primary-recipients-of-obamacare-waivers/#ixzz29d4Vc7ze
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shuvonn | Oct 18, 2012, 01:42 AM EDT
So Brian you want to split hairs still on the Ben Ghazi attack? Obama held a press conference in the Rose Garden on the day after the attack specifically about that attack and said when referring to that attack *"No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done."* And at that time many demonstrations were taking place world wide over that video. I am not here to do your homework on facts regarding what page of the health care law anything is on but I notice you do not address the waivers claim. Or Romneys passing of basically the same Obamacare in Mass and now he flip flops on it? And Republicans have been the most partisan since they gained control of the house with Obama in power at least Democrats were willing to work with republicans. EVERYONE'S insurance payments go up yearly and Obamacare will make insurance companies justify the increases and not allow them to cap out ever. And Romney in a conference call with the National Federation of Independent Business urged bosses to persuade their employees to vote for him and insists there is nothing wrong with a *little guidance* in their voting choices so it looks like Siegal took his advice on that one :-) I thought once the curtain closed the choice was yours alone to make, apparently NOT in Romney's world :-)
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BrianO | Oct 17, 2012, 12:42 PM EDT
So shuvon when did he say it was a terrorist attack as opposed to a mob attack because of a video? What page of the 2700 page healthcare takeover on? Romneys part in the Massachusetts healthcare bill is one thing I don't approve of, because I'm from Massachusetts. Our insurance payments are almost double. But I also witnessed Romney dealing with a Dem house and Senate that could overide any veto and he did a good job.
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shuvonn | Oct 17, 2012, 07:39 AM EDT
We'll start with and keep to the FACTS! Romney passed Obamacare in Mass while he was governer. And where is your proof that Obama supporters have gotten waivers? Obamacare relies heavily on choice and there is no way that it is anywhere near or ever will be total government control that is a lie and you know it Repition of a lie does not change that it is a lie.. As for your lie that the government will have better care? In 2014, Americans will have access to the same health care choices as Members of Congress. SEC. 1312 [42 U.S.C. 18032]. CONSUMER CHOICE. I do not care where the 47% comment was made, he said it, would not apologize at first and then flip flopped on it as usual.The president should care about all citizens not just 53% and it's not the first time Romney put his foot in his mouth ( 3 times on a 3 country tour this summer) And YOU want to talk smear machine? That's an awfully big glass house you are throwing stones from. All you have proven is that you hate Obama and are willing to lie to sustain that stance. Sort of like the egregious lies Romney told in the second debate as when he lied about the timing of Obama coming out and called the Ben Ghazi murders a terrorist attack, which is also a reprehensible use of this incident for political gain, I knew when Obama called it a terrorist attack and I am not in a presidential race, yet Romney thought he could lie and get away with it?
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BrianO | Oct 16, 2012, 02:17 PM EDT
It is a federal law now. The effects will start this year, unless of course you have gotten a waiver, as many of the obama supporters have. After wwI they create an income tax, they said it would never be more than 3%. Do have car insurance? How about Life insurance? home owners insurance? How do you manage to receive these insurances.....Oh you pay for them. The fact is the government end game is control. If they have to ruin the best healthcare in the world then so be it. You won't see any of these politicians on the health care offered to the public by the government, just like you don't see them on social security. The 47% comment was made at a fundraiser and concerned Romney's thought that people who didn't pay taxes would be in obama's camp, because they have no skin in the game, a tax break doesn't appeal to people who don't pay taxes. I do believe he made a mistake as many of the 47% are retired or military who are squarely in his camp. With the Obama smear machine in full mode to only have this small shred to throw at Romney is pitiful. Too bad he couldn't get ahold of closed divorce records or challenge petitions to elimanate his competition like in Chicago- Tough and ruthless, but that ok just a couple of Black candidates eliminated by obama.
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shuvonn | Oct 15, 2012, 11:42 AM EDT
The exact point is that there is no way it is anywhere near that the government will have full control over the health care in the US.It is NO where near that, there are too many states and too many people to be covered and too many individual companies to take into consideration so that will never happen. Just more of the *whipping up fear* is all that is, just hot air. And you seem to forget the companies that do not offer health benefits, do those people not count, are they like the 47% that Romney does not have to worry about? You also forget that you are aleady going to have to pay for people who have no health insurance IF they get sick anyway so why not get money from them while they are healthy? Even in Ireland yes there is state care but you can always get private insurance to supplement your health care such as VHI and relatives of mine who served in the Gardai have the retired Gardai health insurance also still as in a plan they also signed up for upon retirement. And IF you think that the ones that are not offered health care in their jobs (waitresses, part time workers (some companies avoid keeping full time workers to avoid paying benefits) are not important ( like Romney ) that speaks volumes and the government ensuring they get covered for a reasonable cost( their kids between 18-26) and for pre-existing conditions is the government doing nothing that's another example of the I'm all right Jack attitude....
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BrianO | Oct 15, 2012, 09:18 AM EDT
The exact point is that with the government take over of health care you will have no choice. That is the end game, dependency and control. Employee plans are part of business benefits to attract good employees, When the government taxes businesses on top of the costs of the insurance businesses will discontinue these benefits. People will have no choice.--The realtor analogy, the point is that realtors WORK for their commission and they would gladly take the deal the government made which now the government makes3.8% commission the government does not work for this, so when you sell your house you will pay 6% to the realtors, 3.8% to the government, and depending on the situation capital gains taxes.
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shuvonn | Oct 14, 2012, 06:58 PM EDT
That depends, S corporations could only deduct a certain percentage for their healthcare premiums and let's face it you are doing just a little whipping up fear yourself with claiming that you may end up having State or Federal care since as far as I know that does NOT exist yet (federal):-) And you always have a choice when you pay for it yourself :-) How do you think self employed people do it ?And if you think you didn't pay for the care of uninsured before Obamacare you're sadly mistaken. As for realtors not working for their commission? They could go months without a sale and no money so it works both ways!
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