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Lost in the Sauce: Trump, Cruz, and Gohmert team up to incite election-related violence

Welcome to Lost in the Sauce, keeping you caught up on political and legal news that often gets buried in distractions and theater… or a global health crisis.
Housekeeping:

Election shenanigans

I put the latest info on Trump's phone call to Raffensperger in this comment.
According to experts, Trump’s conduct has potential criminal exposure:
A federal statute makes it a crime when one “knowingly and willfully … attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by … the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held.”
A Georgia statute similarly provides that a “person commits the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the first degree when, with intent that another person engage in conduct constituting a felony under this article, he or she solicits, requests, commands, importunes, or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage in such conduct.”
…The hard part for prosecutors would be proving Trump’s state of mind, because the statutes require proof of knowledge and intent. Prosecutors would have to show that Trump knew that Biden fairly won the election, and Trump was asking for Georgia officials to commit election fraud. And it’s not clear prosecutors could make that case.
At least 12 Republican senators plan to challenge Biden’s Electoral College win on Jan. 6, when Congress is set to officially count the votes. The effort is being led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and includes Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.), as well as new Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). Separately, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) is pursuing a similar plan.
"Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed," the senators said in a joint statement. “Accordingly, we intend to vote on Jan. 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed."
Their plan is not going to succeed in preventing Biden from taking office, as majorities in both the House and the Senate would need to support a challenge against a state’s electoral votes. For an objection to be made, at least one member of both the House and Senate would need to submit it in writing. Then, the House and Senate separately convene to consider the issue. Debate is limited to two hours for each objection. After debate concludes, the House and Senate vote to uphold the objection and throw out the state’s votes. If the majority of the House AND the majority of the Senate does not uphold the objection, the state’s electoral votes are counted as cast.
  • Vice President Mike Pence’s role is simply to preside over the joint session, opening and presenting the certifications from each state. In his absence, the Senate pro-tempore Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) will lead the session. At the end of the process, the presiding officer announces who has won the majority of votes for president and vice president.
The most immediate danger from Trump and Cruz’s doomed election gambit is rightwing terrorism and general violence: Trump, in particular, is inciting his supporters to swarm D.C. on Jan. 6. “JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!” Trump tweeted last week. Four rightwing rallies are scheduled, including one headlined by George Papadopoulos and Roger Stone.
The Proud Boys and other extremists are planning to attend the rallies and may set up an “armed encampment” on the National Mall, according to the Washington Post. On social media platform Parler, the leader of the Proud Boys said that members will be there “incognito” and may “dress in all black” to impersonate leftwing protestors.
Enrique Tarrio: "The ProudBoys will turn out in record numbers on Jan 6th but this time with a twist...We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams."
Rep. Louie Gohmert has more explicitly tried to incite violence, saying the failure of his legal challenge to the election means “you gotta go the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM.” (clip)
  • At the same time, pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood suggested that Pence could “face execution by firing squad” for “treason” if he doesn’t go along with the attempt to subvert the election.

Obstructing the transition

Biden’s transition director has accused the Office of Management and Budget of stonewalling the incoming administration’s team. OMB Director Russ Vought is not allowing key staff to meet with the transition team to help prepare the president-elect’s first annual spending plan, a move that could delay major proposals. Vought pushed back on the charges, saying that his agency needs to focus on finalizing the Trump administration’s regulations before the president leaves office.
“OMB leadership’s refusal to fully cooperate impairs our ability to identify opportunities to maximize the relief going out to Americans during the pandemic, and it leaves us in the dark as it relates to Covid-related expenditures and critical gaps,” [Biden transition Exec. Dir. Yohannes] Abraham said.
Earlier last week, Biden himself said Trump officials are not cooperating with his team, singling out the Defense Department for obstructing information on crucial national security issues. “Right now, we just aren’t getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas. It’s nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility,” Biden said. The Defense Dept. finally scheduled meetings with the incoming team this week, after not briefing the transition for weeks.
  • The timing of the resumption in meetings is notable because it comes after the one year anniversary of the U.S. assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3. NATO officials are reportedly worried about the lack of coordination from the Trump administration: "We need the incoming Biden administration to be fully briefed and ready to deal with these very dangerous issues facing NATO's security."

Sabotaging the Biden Administration

U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack is taking steps to keep control of Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia during the Biden administration. As chairman of the boards of Radio Free Europe and Asia, Pack and his fellow members have added binding contractual agreements that will make it impossible to remove him or other pro-Trump allies from the board in the next two years.
In other words, although President-elect Joe Biden has already signaled he intends to replace Pack as CEO of the parent agency soon after taking office in January, Pack would maintain a significant degree of control over the networks.
The State Department is likely to designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism “as an 11th hour effort to create hurdles for the incoming Biden administration.” The label, which requires the approval of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, would undo a major accomplishment of the Obama administration. To take Cuba back off the list, the Biden team would need to conduct a formal review, a process that might take several months.
Such a designation would impose restrictions on US foreign assistance, a ban on defense exports and sales, certain controls over exports and various financial restrictions. It would also result in penalization against any persons and countries engaging in certain trade activities with Cuba.
The Trump administration has been rushing to finalize a myriad of rules before Biden’s inauguration. Since Election Day, the Trump administration has issued about three to four times as many new regulations as it did during other periods of Trump’s presidency. Rules that haven’t been finalized or taken effect can be suspended by an incoming president, which Biden has said he intends to do. By contrast, rules that are finalized can take months, or even years, to undo.
“As a general rule, it takes at least as much process to undo or modify a rule as it does to put the rule in place,” said Jonathan H. Adler, a professor and an administrative law expert at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. “The Trump administration is magnifying that challenge for the Biden administration.”
Trump loyalists are urging the president to stymie Biden’s efforts to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Sens. Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham are working to get the agreements submitted to the Senate for ratification, requiring a two-thirds vote, with the goal of failure. While such an outcome wouldn’t prevent Biden from rejoining the accords, Cruz and Graham hope it would make their resurrection more problematic.
A vote against them would signal GOP opposition to the world and, they hope, undermine any unilateral action by Biden to rejoin the agreements. One senior congressional aide told RCP that sending them to die in the Senate “would be the final nail in the coffin.”
Further reading: “Biden To Be Saddled With Trump’s Payroll Tax Deferral Mess,” Forbes.
Further reading: Biden will inherit a backlog of tens of thousands of visa requests from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and a bureaucratic tangle that refugee advocates say President Trump ignored or made worse.

Trump money and properties

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is employing forensic accounting specialists to examine Trump’s finances and business operations. Vance is looking “for anomalies among a variety of property deals” and trying to determine “whether the president’s company manipulated the value of certain assets to obtain favorable interest rates and tax breaks”.
The analysts hired by Vance probably have already reviewed various bank and mortgage records obtained from Trump’s company as part of the ongoing grand jury investigation, and they could be called on to testify about their findings should the district attorney eventually bring criminal charges
In yet another shady business deal connected to Trump, the United States sold the ambassador’s residence in Israel for more than $67 million. The person who bought the residence is none other than Trump mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. The property only became available due to Trump's controversial decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem. Furthermore, State Dept. representatives reportedly lied to Congress about the sale, perhaps to hide that Adelson purposefully overbid.
For now, there is no alternative residence for the ambassador, David Friedman, Trump’s former lawyer, who currently uses a suite at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel or rooms at the former Jerusalem Consulate General when he spends nights in Jerusalem… As a result, the United States appears likely to end up leasing the residence it has owned since 1964 from the GOP-affiliated casino mogul.
“It is very strange that we are now paying Sheldon Adelson,” a congressional aide told The Daily Beast. “It is not above board. We have a number of questions. Did they get two independent appraisals? Was it a sweetheart deal? Was Adelson the highest donor? Was there a reason to sell it now?”
Trump’s businesses have taken in $10.5 million of donor money over the course of his presidency. $8.5 million came from the Trump campaign and related entities that Trump controls directly; $2 million came from other Republican candidates and committees. The biggest beneficiary was Trump’s NYC hotel, taking in $3,039,979 over the four years of his presidency, with $891,003 of that in just the final four months of the campaign.
Trump’s DC hotel is ramping up room prices and requiring a two-night minimum stay for two key events this month, as the president tries to squeeze more profit out of his office. On Jan. 6, when Congress is set to formally count the votes cast by the Electoral College, room rates are listed at over eight times the price of surrounding dates. Trump is encouraging his supporters to attend a protest of Biden’s win on the 6th. A room during the inauguration costs five times the normal rate, at $2,225 per night.
Trump’s Turnberry Resort in Scotland posted a £2.3 million ($3.1 million) loss in 2019, marking the sixth year in a row it has failed to turn a profit under his ownership. Since Trump took over the historic property in 2014, its losses now total nearly £45 million ($61.5 million).
The fact Turnberry remains in the red comes in spite of significant tranches of payments it has received from the US government during Mr Trump’s single term in office… the US Secret Service spent nearly £25,000 to accommodate its agents at the resort during business trips by Mr Trump’s son, Eric, an executive vice-president of the family firm. Since Mr Trump’s election, the property has received close to £300,000 from the Secret Service, US State Department, and US Defence Department
A Florida state lawmaker is calling for Mar-a-Lago to be penalized - and possibly shut down - for flouting coronavirus restrictions during a New Years Eve party. While Trump and the first lady did not attend, son Don Jr., attorney Rudy Giuliani, Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Fox News personality Jeanine Piro were captured on video among the maskless crowd. Guests paid as much as $1,000 for access to the ballroom to be entertained by Vanilla Ice.
State Rep. Omari Hardy: “My constituents are not snowbirds like @DonaldJTrumpJr & @kimguilfoyle. My constituents live here. This is their home, and they're going to have to deal w/ the consequences of a potential super-spreader party at Mar-a-Lago long after Junior & wife leave here on their private jet.”
Are you ready for a Donald J. Trump Airport? According to the Daily Beast, Trump has been asking aides about the process of naming airports after former U.S. presidents.
Further reading: “Jared Kushner’s family real estate business wants to raise at least $100 million in capital through Israel’s bond market… Kushner has helped spearhead a series of moves that have been applauded by the conservative pro-Israel community, including moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recognizing Israeli sovereignty in disputed areas such as the Golan Heights. Kushner also has close ties to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Miscellaneous

The Census Bureau missed it’s end-of-year deadline to produce numbers that determine representation in Congress and the Electoral College for the next decade. The agency is working toward Jan. 9 as an internal target date for completing the current stage of processing records. "If we miss Jan. 9, it's hard to envision that we would get apportionment done before inauguration," a Census employee told NPR.
The final timing of the 2020 census results' release could undermine President Trump's efforts to make an unprecedented change to who is counted in key census numbers before leaving office… If the first census results are not ready until after Trump's term ends on Jan. 20, it would be President-elect Joe Biden, not Trump, who would get control of the numbers, which are ultimately handed off to Congress for certification.
submitted by rusticgorilla to Keep_Track [link] [comments]

The Case of the Missing 40,000 Jerry Nugget Decks

The Case of the Missing 40,000 Jerry Nugget Decks: A Detective Story
NB: I first published this article (with pictures) at PlayingCardDecks here.
Jerry's Nugget Playing Cards. The story of the original Jerry's Nugget decks is a fascinating one, and there are many interesting side-stories to explore about along the way. You can read the main story about the Jerry's Nugget decks in my previous article here: The Legendary Jerry's Nugget Playing Cards.
But the full truth still remains somewhat hidden, and there are aspects about the Jerry's Nugget story that even today we can't totally be sure about. And with the passage of time, several juicy tidbits of lore have become attached to this famous deck.
In this article I invite you to join me in a quest to explore another juicy story that has become part of the Jerry's Nugget legend. Is it true that the final stock of 40,000 Jerry's Nugget decks was bought up from the casino by a mysterious overseas buyer? Because this is an oft-repeated part of the story, that you'll hear whispered rumours about across the landscape of the internet. But this a statement of fact or fiction, and is it truth or myth? It could mean that right now someone is potentially sitting on a small fortune of Jerry's Nugget decks worth around $500 a piece. If it's true.
So please put on your Sherlock Holmes trench-coat and deerstalker hat, arm yourself with a good amount of deductive logic and persistence, and join me as we see if we can really get to the bottom of this mystery, and dredge up the truth behind this famed haul of 40,000 decks!

A Secret Stash of 40,000 Decks?

If you are curious - like I am - and do some digging about the story and history of the Jerry's Nugget decks, it won't take you long to stumble across mention of the claim that a stash of the final 40,000 decks of Jerry's Nuggets was bought up in a single swoop, cleaning out the casino's remaining inventory of these prized decks.
The story about some lucky buyer nabbing a final stash of 40,000 decks is circulated quite widely around the internet. Do a Google search for "40,000 Jerry's Nugget" and look at how many hits this gets! Some places that sell the decks even include this in their ad copy. For example, here's the ad copy over at one online retailer, which was selling authentic decks for $525 before they sold out:
Another online retailer says the same. Many reviewers have parroted this information as well, such as this example. So do various sites dedicated to information about playing cards, such as this example.
As far as many people are concerned, this information is more along the lines of "fact" than fiction, and it's become part of the story that everyone accepts. Little wonder that it is often repeated by collectors in discussion forums about playing cards, and that it has given more than just one person a tinge of envy.

Who is the mysterious buyer?

So who is the lucky guy with 40,000 decks of precious Jerry's Nugget decks hidden in his basement or garage? And is the story even true?
Some of the sources for this story seem quite credible. And they also reveal the buyer's name: French magician Dominique Duvivier. One person quotes Jordan Lapping, apparently among the first cardists to get Jerry's Nugget decks and use them for flourishing.
Dominique Duvivier is a French magician who performs and works with his daughter Alexandra, and together they have a high profile in the world of French magic. They are even well known in the circles of international magic, and were featured on the cover of the June 2013 issue of Genii Magazine.
Norwegian magician Allan Hagen has a long-time interest in the Jerry's Nugget decks, and he also mentions Duvivier's purchase of 40,000 Jerry's Nugget decks as apparent fact in something he posted on Reddit in 2015, where he describes his perspective on their rarity and value.
You'll read similar reports in an article published by Ukrainian cardists Alexander and Nikolay about Jerry's Nugget decks in June 2017. Two things are common to all these accounts: the number 40,000 for the haul of decks purchased by the mysterious overseas buyer. And now his name: Dominique Duvivier.
I contacted a number of different sources, including people who had personal connections with some of the key players who were closely involved when Jerry's Nuggets decks first became a fad among magicians and cardists in the late 1990s. One source told me: "Interesting, the name of the European magician - it was a big secret back then. Someone actually told me his name back then, but it was on the proviso that I never publish it. Well, I see it's out of the bag now."

Was Dominique Duvivier the buyer?

But is there any evidence that Dominique Duvivier was really the mystery buyer whose name had been a carefully kept secret for some time at least? It was time for some more detective work. Google brought me to Duvivier's personal website.
It didn't take long to discover that Duvivier does indeed have a real fondness for Jerry's Nuggets Playing Cards. They are everywhere - in his photos, his videos, and his instagram.
Judging by the many French-language comments on his site, it also becomes apparent that Duvivier is highly respected and appreciated in his home country for his magic. It's also evident from reading some of the comments that his Jerry's Nuggets decks are a signature of his performance. Some even consider them to be the equivalent of a Stradivarius that Duvivier uses to perform with as a master magician.
But it was when I checked Duvivier's youtube channel that I found some real gold: Dominique himself performing with Jerry's Nugget cards in this clip. In fact, if you check out his other videos there, you'll find quite a few where he performs magic with Jerry's Nugget playing cards, like this performance from 2014, this more recent ace cutting routine, and this false shuffle. Duvivier has even contributed a Jerry's Nugget themed trick to the magic industry, entitled Jerry's Nuggets Cards in Bag.
You can watch the promo video for this trick in French or English. His daughter Alexandra Duvivier successfully used it to fool Penn and Teller on their show Fool Us. Here's the episode, and some unseen footage.
But just because Dominique Duvivier happens to really, really like Jerry's Nugget playing cards doesn't prove that he bought out a massive stash of the last 40,000 decks from the casino. So this still begs this question: Did any of this even happen? And is there really someone on this planet with a hoard of 40,000 decks, whether it is Dominique Duvivier or anybody else?
One of my favourite photos on Duvivier's site is this one here, with his haul. If that's any indication, surely the legendary haul was starting to seem somewhat plausible. It was time to ask around, and check in with some of the people who were around when the Jerry's Nugget decks first became the rage.
Of the sources I consulted, few could be considered more reliable than Lee Asher. For many people Lee is synonymous with the Jerry's Nugget phenomenon. He also had close connections with the events of the time, and was instrumental in bringing the Jerry's Nuggets into the limelight in the first place, by singing their paises. He was kind enough to respond when I contacted him for comment about Duvivier's alleged haul of 40,000 Jerry's Nugget decks, and Lee bluntly told me the following:
"This is misinformation. There weren't 40k decks left in 1999. We don't even know if Jerry's even printed 40k decks."
Really? Apparently Lee Asher knew Duvivier personally, and he was the very person who first told Duvivier that the casino even had the cards for sale. He also visited his home and shop in Paris many times throughout this period of time. In Lee's words:
"Without a doubt, I NEVER saw 40k of ANY deck there. That's basically nine pallets worth. The house, their magic shop and night club weren't big enough to house these decks. It also seems Duvivier isn't the last one to buy the remaining decks. Jerry's Nugget Casino believes they sold the last case of cards to someone in Japan in 1999."
Well, it seems that the story had to be put to rest. Was this entire story perhaps just a magnificent urban legend after all? And if it was, where does the number of 40,000 decks come from, and how did this story get so much traction that it spread all around the internet, and is accepted unquestionably by so many people? My task had just become a bit harder, but I wasn't going to give up yet. It was time to try to track down where the many websites that quoted this story got the figure of 40,000 from in the first place.

Where does the figure of 40,000 come from?

With some more digging, the oldest article I could find on the subject was by a card collector who has a collection of fine articles on his site, White Knuckle Cards. This particular article dates back to 2009, and is one of the earliest references to the legendary stash of 40,000 decks that I could find.
This particular article seems to be the first time the figure of 40,000 pops up, pre-dating all the more recent mentions of it. And it's not hard to figure out how it spread from there. On 6 August 2015, someone called "Doctor Papa Jones" added these details to Wikipedia's article on Jerry's Nuggets, evidently relying on the White Knuckle Cards article. As a result the Wikipedia article now read as follows: "In 2000, a private collector purchased the remaining stock of 40,000 decks".
So now this "fact" is on Wikipedia and has some real "credibility". In fact, the number 40,000 stays up on Wikipedia for the next five years unchallenged! And that allows it to spread around the internet and go wild. Because where does everyone go when they're looking for reliable, authoritative, and trustworthy information about something? Wikipedia!
Despite the mention of the magical stash of 40,000 decks, Duvivier's name remained out of the spotlight for a further four years. It was simply a mysterious "private collector" who had purchased the big haul. But in 2019, someone connected the dots to Duvivier, and so the Wikipedia article was changed to include his name.
So how did that happen? Well the supporting reference that Doctor Papa Jones included in his 2015 edit was a link to an article by Dan and Dave Buck, dating back to 7 Dec 2011. This article is also no longer available, but can be tracked down with the help of the Internet Archive here. It doesn't give the figure of 40,000 but does drop Duvivier's name.
So the evidence seems to suggest this development: Apparently relying on the White Knuckle Cards article from 2009 as a source, the number 40,000 first embedded itself in the WIkipedia article on Jerry's Nugget Playing Cards in 2015. Slowly the story grew, until somebody finally connected the dots that were hidden in plain sight elsewhere on the internet, and as a result Duvivier's name gets added four years later. Now things are set up for a great story: Mr Duvivier is sitting on a massive stash of 40,000 Jerry's Nuggets in France.
The story gained even more traction as a result of the revived interest in Jerry's Nuggets that inevitably happened when a tribute deck was printed in 2019. It was inevitable that many would rely on Wikipedia as a source, and so the details even ended up being quoted in ad copy for the reprinted decks. What had previously just been a matter of quiet rumour or speculation, was now considered as fact. Oh, the joy of Wikipedia - it has certainly helped promote quite the legend here!
And it doesn't take a genius to see that if this is true, Duvivier could be sitting on a small fortune. At $500 each, 14,000 decks would be worth around $700,000. Naturally a market flooded with them would drop their value. But even if the going price dropped to $100 a piece, that would still value his holdings at over $100,000. Even if he just sold the occasional decks at $500 a pop, this windfall could generate a nice little secondary income. That is, if the legend is true, a fact yet to be proven....

Revising the figure

Because this year, the Wikipedia article was changed. By now of course the (mis)information about Duvivier's haul had gone far and wide, and a lot of potential damage has already been done. But on 25 March 2020 someone called "TheCongressGuy" changed it to read that Duvivier "purchased the remaining stock of 1,500-2000 decks".
Suddenly the number of Duvivier's legendary purchase had been reduced from 40,000 to something around 5% of the size. A figure of 1,500-2000 seems much more likely. So who made the change and what was their source?
I did some more digging and managed to track down TheCongressGuy. He is Kevan Seaney, who describes himself as an "antique playing cards collector, specializing in the Congress 606 brand" and posts here. In February 2020 he wrote here that he'd learned that Duvivier had not purchased 40,000 decks. I was curious, and eventually found the following video that he posted about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2pctAEuiZA
And who was his source that Kevan credits for correcting the previous (mis)information about the number 40,000? If you watch that video, you'll find out that it is none other than the great Lee Asher. Lee Asher isn't just "anyone". He's a playing card expert, and the current president of 52 Plus Joker The American Playing Card Collectors Club. He's the guy who first generated public interest in Jerry's Nugget decks, brought them to the attention of cardists like the Buck twins and Chris Kenner, and was later a purveyor of these icon decks via his website. He's also had personal connections with Duvivier, was the person who informed Duvivier that they were available from the casino, and has personally spent a lot of time with him in Paris.
And Lee Asher is a key person that has helped get real Jerry's Nugget decks into the hands of a new generation today. He's the guy who was instrumental in making a collaboration happen between Jerry's Nugget Casino and Expert Playing Card Company, by suggesting that EPCC get the exclusive licence needed to reprint these iconic decks in 2019, as announced in an official press release here.
It's plain that along with EPCC's Bill Kalush, Lee Asher (pictured below) was singularly responsible for getting an officially licensed Jerry's Nugget deck back into the hands of a new generation and into the collections of those who couldn't afford the massive sticker price of the originals. So if anyone has a passion for the original Jerry's Nuggets, it is Lee Asher. Of anyone in this picture, Lee is the person with the most credibility, and his opinion and perspective should carry a lot of weight.
With Asher as his source, Kevan Seaney points out that 40,000 decks of Jerry's Nugget playing cards is the equivalent of around 8 pallets. That's a massive amount, and would weigh around four tons. And it would take up a tremendous amount of space! Kevan cites Lee Asher as saying (via voice messages in Instagram) that in 1999 Asher told Duvivier that he could get the decks from the casino, and that Duvivier bought around 1,500-2000 decks at the time. Lee subsequently visited his home and store - France's oldest magic shop - in France many times. And according to Asher, there was no way Duvivier had room for 40,000 decks. Kevin also says that Lee Asher pointed out to him that these were technically not the final lot of decks sold by the casino anyway, and that the last decks (a "case" of unknown size) probably went to Japan.
Wow. That really changes things! So based on this apparent "new information" from Lee Asher - who to his credit has apparently been saying this all along - Wikipedia gets a new edit by TheCongressGuy aka Kevin Seaney. The impressive figure of 40,000 is reduced to a much more modest 1500-2000, which is paltry by comparison to the much larger figures circulating the internet, and not nearly as impressive a story. But this is only after Wikipedia has been singing a different tune for five years, so the `damage' has been done, and the story of Duvivier's windfall of 40,000 Jerry's Nuggets is already accepted by most people as a true story.

Duvivier's own story

Suddenly it occurred to me to investigate Duvivier himself. Was this perhaps a line of inquiry that might produce some solid leads and definitive facts? Has the man himself ever commented on all these stories about his legendary haul? Could I find anything directly from the man himself that would shed some light on these legends? In fact, why hadn't I thought of this earlier? Just because nobody else seems to have dug up or reported anything from the man's own mouth, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I slapped myself for my own foolishness, and headed back to Google.
As it turns out, Duvivier has written about this! But because it's an article in French, it's escaped notice from most people. Since he's popular as a professional magician in France, he not only has his own website, but he also writes his own blog. And sure enough, he's addressed this very topic in a blog article that he wrote in April 2011 under the title "Magiphageuh No 14: Les Jerry's Nugget".
With the help of an online translation tool, we learn this:
"As most of you already know, I only use real "Jerry's Nugget" cards to work with and have been doing so for many years. As these cards happen to be extremely rare to find on the market (I am obviously talking about the original Jerry's Nugget cards and not the recently reprinted ones) and they excite the magical world a lot, I am therefore constantly asked how many I own, how long have I owned them, what deal I made to get them and with whom, why do I have so many cards, why did I choose these specifically, why don't I want to sell them, why, why, eh?! And I hear such amazing stories about myself on these famous "Jerry's Nugget" cards that I decided to speak on the subject myself today."
This sounds very promising! Duvivier then goes on to tell the story about how the Jerry's Nuggets gained their legendary reputation, and the unique qualities they have. In France in the 1970s, American playing cards were quite rarely seen, and Duvivier knew a French pilot commandant called Reyno who loved magic, who would occasionally bring back cards from the US to a small circle of French magicians. At this time even standard Bicycle and Tally Ho decks were prized by these French conjurers, so besides them a Jerry's Nugget deck was considered a real crown jewel.
Over the years Duvivier occasionally got more of the Jerry's Nugget decks, sometimes even an entire case of them at once, especially via his friend Michael Weber, who was his main supplier. We fast forward to 1999, when he finds himself heading to Las Vegas to perform at The Magic Castle. Here's the story in his words, courtesy of an online translation tool:
"In 1999 (if I'm not mistaken) my daughter Alexandra and I were hired to perform for a whole week at Magic Castle and then for a few contracts in Las Vegas. You may think that I had only one idea in mind at the time: a trip to the original casino where my favourite cards were from, Jerry's Nugget! Michael Weber had told me that there were still a few decks for sale there, so as soon as we arrived I immediately asked Philip Varricchio, who had come to pick us up in a limousine, to take us there. He was rather surprised, as we hadn't even put our bags down at the hotel (yes, I'm a fool) and the old Jerry's casino wasn't really known for being a must-see place! So I told him that I wanted to go there to buy Jerry's Nugget cards. According to him it was impossible to get them for the simple reason that they hadn't been around for a long time, but I was so insistent that he finally complied (hey, hey, hey!). When we arrived there, we went to the gift shop of the casino and I asked the salesman if he was selling their decks.
- Yes," he told me, "I have a few.
He shows me a small piece of wall in the back of the store where a hundred decks were on display. I ask about the price. Not even expensive!
- Well, I'll take them," I say (laughs).
And of course I ask if he has more in reserve! Yes, there were about a hundred boxes left (each box containing a large number of cards, 144 decks!). After a little negotiation, the unit price was even lowered to less than $1.
That's it, that's how it happened and that's it. In fact, in all this story, the most difficult, the longest and the most expensive was to get the stock back to France.
Since then, I've been seeing, little by little, the bids going up on these cards in a rather hallucinating way, whereas, of course, that wasn't my initial motivation at all. From the moment I bought the remaining stock, it's as if everyone wanted to own even more! But I just wanted to have enough stock of Jerry's Nugget decks because I'm a card fanatic and these in particular. I use these cards because they're the best cards I know and I've fought like a big man to own enough of them for me (I should mention that I never had a middleman or a partner to buy these cards). Anyone could have done as I did and I don't understand why no one did: you just had to take the trouble to go to this casino, because the cards were available! In any case, now they are all warm and cosy in different safes, which I won't tell you about. They say I'm the person with the most cards in the world, but I have to say I don't care. I know Chris Kenner is the one who planned it, he has a lot of them too. I've been offered golden bridges to sell a few packages, or even my entire stock. I've had some incredible offers over the years. I never intended to create a buzz with these cards: I just use them for my own personal consumption, that's all...because they're my favorite cards."
Probably the key sentence in that account is this, and the best translation seems to be something like this:
"Yes, there were about a hundred boxes left (each box containing a large number of cards, that's 144 decks!)."
The formula is simple: around 100 boxes with 144 decks each. If true, that would mean 100 x 144 = 14,400 decks. Given that this is directly from the horse's mouth, suddenly the story becomes slightly more plausible. So too is his additional statement:
"In all this story, the most difficult, the longest and the most expensive was to get the stock back to France."
That suggests he didn't bring the whole stash to France in one go, which might explain why visitors like Lee Asher and others who saw his home and magic shop never saw any evidence of them. I'm not a French speaker, so I'm happy to be corrected if I'm misunderstanding anything Duvivier has written - by all means check the article for yourself in the original French, to see if I've got it right. But the long and short of it seems to be that Duvivier is saying that what he bought from Las Vegas around 1999 was not a stash of 40,000 Jerry's Nuggets decks, but 14,000 decks.
14,000 is not nearly as impressive a figure. But even though it's only a third of the size of what the legend floating around the internet says, 14,000 decks is still an incredibly impressive haul. Certainly the amount of pictures and videos that show Duvivier performing with Jerry's Nugget cards, seems to suggest that they are very much part of his regular repertoire. It could just be possible, and maybe I've finally found the truth!
Perhaps the most defining photo of all is this one (credited to Zakary Belamy), which shows Duvivier enjoying a bath with his Jerry's Nugget playing cards! Given the value of these playing cards on the market today, some might consider this sacrilege, but it sure suggests he has a large enough supply of Jerry's Nugget cards. At any rate, his collection of them seems large enough that he can even afford to take them to the bath for a photo op along with his favourite yellow rubber ducky.

But is it true?

Was the mystery solved at last? It was time to get back in contact with Lee Asher, and share my findings. But despite the claims of Duvivier in his 2011 article, Lee is not convinced that Duvivier is a credible source. To be fair, this is what Lee Asher has been saying all along, and for years he's been saying that the story about the legendary haul of 40,000 decks wasn't supported by the facts.
Ultimately what this comes down to is: are we going to believe what Duvivier says? For the most part, Duvivier has appeared to have had little interest in setting the record straight, despite the fact that the rumour of him nabbing 40,000 decks persisted as long as it did. And if he does have a large stash, why has he shown little interest in selling any of the decks that he does have, instead being happy to hoard them or use them only for himself? Would he really have spent all the time, energy, and money necessary to ship even 14,000 decks of playing cards across the ocean from the United States to Europe, just for his personal usage, at a time when the street value of these was only a dollar or two a piece? And if he did, where did he put them, and why has nobody ever seen his stash, including those who visited his home?
There are other details about Duvivier's record of events that call aspects of his narrative into question, such as his complete omission of any mention of Lee Asher, who was the one who made him aware of where he could get them. And in those days, the casino gift shop was very small, so is it really reasonable for them to display 100 decks on their back wall, as Duvivier claims in his 2011 article, when they had such little space to work with?
I had some private correspondence with another magician/cardist who has also stayed at Duvivier's house, and that individual expressed similar sentiments. He agreed that there was no evidence of Duvivier ever owning that many decks. Just do the math: 40,000 decks would mean Duvivier could use a brand new deck every single day for more than 100 years before he chewed through a collection of decks that size. Again: very unlikely. If he really did have that many, it would be way more than he could ever use, and surely he would have sold some by now - which he hasn't. This person remains somewhat skeptical, but acknowledges that the figure of 14,000 is a more realistic number that is not beyond the realms of possibility, especially if Duvivier has them locked up in a storage facility in Paris somewhere.
As an educated guess, it seems that there is good reason to cast some suspicion on this story, and there are some aspects about it that seem rather unlikely. Shipping that many decks, at the time only worth a buck or two each at most, all the way from Las Vegas to Paris would be crazy. But a man willing to jump into a bath with a yellow rubber duck and destroy $1000 worth of playing cards in the process strikes me as crazy enough to do it. Perhaps Duvivier's story is true after all.

A final twist

I was now several weeks into my adventures as an investigative journalist, and I was getting ready to wrap up my story and publish it. But there was one final lead that I had not yet explored. If I was really going to try every possible avenue of information, I had to try contacting Dominique Duvivier himself. Why not? Admittedly, the odds of getting a response from someone about his apparent stash of precious Jerry's Nuggets wasn't likely. If there was any truth to the story about his legendary haul, even to some degree, then he's undoubtedly had hundreds of inquiries over the years. Just imagine the long lines of people asking him about his stash, trying to convince him to part with some of it. If yet another email comes in on this subject, he'd probably roll his eyes and press `delete'. He is working full time as a professional magician after all, and has a career to worry about. I couldn't blame him if he was tired of responding to what undoubtedly would be countless messages from prospective buyers.
But I had no intention to buy anything, so as a good amateur journalist, I had to try. It was a long shot, but to my surprise, I got a response from Duvivier the very same day! It wasn't much, but it included one unexpected bombshell - especially after the journey I'd been on so far: "You'll be glad to know that a special article is going to appear in next Genii Magazine. It's called Dominique Duvivier and Jerry's Nugget cards."
I was stunned. Was someone else working on exactly the same story as me, and had they beat me to the punch? Maybe even Duvivier himself? Could it really be true that in little more than two weeks time, the next issue of Genii was scheduled to come out, and would potentially reveal all? Suddenly I knew that I had to wait with publishing my story. In further emails, Dominique was tight-lipped about any more details. At the very least, surely I would have to wait until that issue of Genii was available, and fork out my cash and purchase a subscription in order to read it. I owed it to my readers to explore every last clue, and give them a story that included all the evidence.
So that is what I did. I waited for the July issue to appear online. Digital editions of Genii are released online each month on the 20th of the month. Finally 20th of June rolled around, and I eagerly perused the contents of the latest issue. Nothing. Nothing remotely Duvivier related. Nothing Jerry's Nugget related. Was Duvivier for real? An inquiry with the editor of Genii produced this response: "Not this issue. Coming up." Would it be August or September maybe? Further inquiries produced only silence.
In follow up correspondence with the Frenchman himself, Duvivier told me "I wrote the article myself. It?s quite long." That sounded promising, but it could just be about his love affair with Jerry's Nugget Playing Cards, rather than a "tell all" story about his haul. There still was no guarantee that it would even be published. And I couldn't be sure that it would offer any more information than his blog article from 2011 which already gave his side of the story, or that it would be any more reliable than the version of events he'd provided there. Was it really worth waiting any longer? It was time to share my findings with the world anyway, and I could always provide an addendum to my story if any credible new information appeared.

Final Thoughts

Is this the final word on this subject? No. I've tried to do the best I could based on information available to me, and shared as much as I could with my readers, so that you can form your own conclusions based on the evidence so far. Undoubtedly there are still some missing puzzle pieces, and in future years some new information could come to light that shows that some of my conclusions were misplaced or that puts aspects of this story a slightly different perspective.
Today we are two full decades removed from the time when the original decks first sold out at the Jerry's Nugget casino. And the further removed in time that we come, the harder it becomes to uncover the truth. Memories become murky. As it is nobody at the casino seems to remember the specific details of what happened. At the time they were probably only too glad to get the remaining stock out of their hands, and nobody could have anticipated how these decks would become the famous icons that they are today. Even their chief evangelist Lee Asher has to be somewhat surprised at the turn of events he's produced since first singing their praises some twenty years ago!
So what can we conclude from all of this? Here's some final thoughts that I'll leave you with:
1. Don't believe everything you read on the internet.
Unfortunately, it's a fact of modern life that not everything on the internet is true. And as we've seen, this also applies to sites like Wikipedia. For topics that have a large number of experts or people interested in a particular subject, changing the facts on a Wikipedia article will quickly see the changes being reverted. But with a more niche subject, like Jerry's Nugget Playing Cards, and especially when it concerns circumstantial material that nobody is quite sure about, it's easy for misinformation to enter Wikipedia. And once it's embedded there, eventually the lore spreads and becomes considered as "fact". So it's important to check your sources, and don't take everything you see online as gospel truth - even if it's on Wikipedia.
2. The legend about the stash of 40,000 decks should be put to rest once and for all.
It's a myth, and there simply is no evidence for this claim anywhere. At most, there is the claim from Duvivier himself that he bought up about 14,000 decks. That might be true, but again, we only have his word for this. As a counter-point, there are those like Lee Asher who know Duvivier and have visited him many times, and insist that they never saw any evidence of this. The enormous cost of shipping a large stash like this to Europe already makes it somewhat hard to believe.
There's no doubt that Duvivier is a huge fan of Jerry's Nugget decks, and he appears to own and use them more than most. But in the end, how credible is he? How seriously are you going to take someone who is happy to post a picture of himself in a bath with a rubber duck and playing cards from a Jerry's Nugget deck? Either that means he has far more decks than he knows what to do with, or he is a little loopy. Or perhaps it's a bit of both. You've had an opportunity to read all the evidence for yourself, so you decide.
Either way, we can safely say that there has never been a stash of 40,000 decks, and the jury is out on whether there was even ever a stash one third of this size. But even if the size of the legendary stash turns out to be smaller than first thought, the reputation and magnetism of the Jerry's Nugget decks has only increased in size, and these now iconic decks will remain firmly embedded in playing card lore.
------------------
Update from the writer: After the original publication of this article, Dominique Duvivier personally phoned me on 24 July 2020 to discuss it, and to share his side of this story. He remembers events slightly differently than Lee Asher does. As Duvivier recalls it, his own interest in the Jerry's Nugget decks dates back to the 1970s and 1980s. At that time he was sourcing them from his friend Michael Weber, who along with magicians like Chris Kenner was also interested in these decks. According to Dominique, he only met Lee Asher during his USA tour in 1999, after he had already bought out the remaining stock from the Jerry's Nugget casino. Duvivier confirmed that the figure of 14,000 accurately reflects the approximate number of decks he purchased from the casino at this time. He shipped the majority of these to France by boat, and stored them in a warehouse, intending them to serve as a life-time supply for himself and his family. Look for his story in an upcoming issue of Genii magazine.
submitted by EndersGame_Reviewer to playingcards [link] [comments]

In response to the Right Wing mass email: In the past 48 hours, these companies reported layoffs. I responded correctly to EACH claim with citations and links for reference. Please share if you enjoy the truth.

Westinghouse - 200
Total lie. They are laying off 50 people, not 200, and have been slowly closing their operations down since Sept. 11, 2011. So they announced the company will be closed by 2015 in 2011: http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/20755025/article-More-layoffs-announced-at-Anniston-weapons-incinerator?instance=1st_left
Research in Motion Ltd - 3,000
These layoffs were announced in June of 2012. Not because of the economy but because they create a product that has lost demand since other competitors have sold more goods: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/11/08/research-in-motion-cuts-jobs-at-irving-headquarters/
Lightyear Network Solutions - 15
These aren't layoffs...they are permanent in an effort to downsize a company that has been losing money for a long time. http://www.wkyt.com/wymt/home/headlines/Company-lays-off-workers-in-Pikeville-177766221.html
Providence Journal - 23
This is a newspaper that has seen its circulation decline from 90,085 to 83,733 in a year's time. They have been regularly laying off employees like every other newspaper across the country as less Americans get their news from newspapers and choose to get it free from the Internet and television: http://www2.turnto10.com/business/2012/nov/08/providence-journal-announces-more-layoffs-ar-1233784/
Hawker Beechcraft - 410
This company declared bankruptcy last year and sold to a chinese company in July of 2011. This recent round of layoffs was 170 people and their business has been in decline since 2008. They make luxury private jets for rich people and I'm assuming the rich can only own a certain amount of private luxury jets at one time: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120802/us-hawker-beechcraft-layoffs/
Boeing 61,000
Boeing expanded it's business dramatically during the Iraq war with HUGE contracts with the defense department. As the war came to a close, they saw their business decline. I guess if you want constant war, Boeing would always be making billions from the government but this is their official statement: "Boeing said the changes were not a response to the threat of additional, across-the-board U.S. budget cuts due to take effect on January 2, or the outcome of U.S. elections, but represented another step in its continuing drive to "be more competitive while investing in technologies and people." So the company itself is deying it has anything to do with the presidential elections and that they layoffs were planned and expected: http://www.catholic.org/business/story.php?id=48428
CVPH Medical Center - 17
This hospital received $3.2 million dollars in federal grant money to keep their doors open but their expenses exceeded their revenues by more than $400,000. They simply don't know how to run a business apparently. http://www.cvph.org/news-and-events/news-detail.aspx?newsid=45
US Cellular - 980
This was the result of a sale of a company to a competitor. Sprint (cell phone company) purchased US Cellular to eliminate a competitor in a certain market. This was a planned sale that took place over the past month, it just happened to be announced on Wednesday. It takes longer than one day to sell a mult-million dollar company: http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/2012/11/carriers-Sprint-Buys-US-Cellular-Midwest-Markets-for-480M/
Commerzbank - 6,000
This is the funniest one so far. This is a bank from Germany and Poland that has absolutely no connection to the U.S. or Obama In looking for official layoff reports, I found this statement from the bank from Nov. 8 where they announced they are investing $2 BILLION euros in their company. Sounds like growth to me. https://www.commerzbank.com/en/hauptnavigation/presse/pressemitteilungen/archiv1/2012/quartal_12_04/presse_archiv_detail_12_04_9794.html
Iberia - 7,000
This is the second funniest because it's an airline out of SPAIN that has no connections (or jobs) to the U.S. Spain's economy has been sinking harder that the U.S. since 2007. Absolutely no connection to America or Obama: http://www.theworld.org/2012/11/spains-iberia-airlines-announces-layoffs/
Momentive Performance Materials - 150
This is a TEMPORARY LAYOFF. All of these jobs will be reinstated in two weeks, as reported by the owner of the company here: http://www.tylerstarnews.com/page/content.detail/id/508789/Momentive-Inc--plans-temporary-layoffs-for-150.html?nav=5008
Brake Parts, LLC - 75
These layoffs were disclosed on Oct. 29. I'm afraid that was a full week BEFORE Obama's re-election. Absolutely no connection here: http://www.tylerstarnews.com/page/content.detail/id/508789/Momentive-Inc--plans-temporary-layoffs-for-150.html?nav=5008
Gameforge Berlin - 20
I'm not even looking this up. If people are stupid and desperate enough to blame Obama for the layoff of 20 people in Berlin, Germany, they are idiots. But then again, I wonder if they even realize that Berlin is in Germany and not in America. Probably not.
Vestas Wind Systems 1,700
Huge lie. First sentence in this story reports the layoffs to be 200 and not 1,700. Blatant lie there. It should be noted that this is a company from Denmark and not an American company. EDIT: I stand corrected on this as I found a quote from the article: The combined layoffs, plus some attrition and relocations, have reduced Vestas' Colorado workforce from 1,700 to 1,200 this year. So we can assume the total number of employees is 1,700 (the amount the email suggests was laid off) and that the numbers laid off amount to 500. http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_21754574
Husqvarna - 390
This is a company based in Sweden, again absolutely no connection to Obama or the U.S. In fact, the majority of those affected are in Sweden or where their products are made in Poland: http://www.appliancemagazine.com/news.php?article=1626614&zone=0&first=1
Ericsson - 14,000
This is another funny one. Ericsson is a Swedish company (like Husqvarna) and those layoffs are in Sweden. They are not 14,000, they are 1,550. Pretty big difference: http://www.i4u.com/2012/11/sony-ericsson/ericsson-swedens-job-announces-cuts
SRA International - 222
Another blatant lie. These layoffs were planned, (like another one) on October 29, 2012. A full week before Obama was re-elected. Here is all the info to prove that: http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2012/11/06/sra-international-to-lay-off-222-in.html
PerkinElmer - 75
This company is moving operations overseas to save money on having to pay Americans a livable wage. The governor of MA tried to talk them into keeping the jobs in America but the company refused to discuss it with them before making the decision to outsource their jobs: http://articles.courant.com/2012-01-18/business/hc-perkinelmer-layoffs-20120118_1_transfer-jobs-perkinelmer-global-stage
Majestic Star Casino and Hotel - 80
THIS is a company trying to destroy their union. Their workers are in a union and their contract ran out Oct. 31st. The company has made more money this year than they did last year but they are still cutting jobs despite making more money. A quote from the union representative: “These out-of-state owners who control billions are coming to Indiana and taking away our jobs,” said Coleman. It is also worth mentioning that these layoffs were announced on Nov. 6th before the election was officially over and anyone knew who won.
http://posttrib.suntimes.com/news/lake/16200678-418/layoffs-hit-garys-majestic-star.html
Center for Hospice NY - 80
TOTAL LIE: This company is renovating its current location and these layoffs will occur NEXT YEAR and they will be TEMPORARY according to the person in charge: http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121106/CITYANDREGION/121109477/1002
Bristol-Myers - 500
Numbers are wrong. It's 470 and everyone agrees that this is the direct result of mismanagement under CEO Lamberto Andreotti...quote from the story: "nominee for worst chief executive of the year." http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/bristol-myers-slash-480-sales-related-jobs-nj/2012-11-06
Lower Bucks Hospital - 500
This is one of the biggest lies: THIRTY people were laid off. 30. Not 500. And the layoffs occurred on NOV.5, THE DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION. People who believe this stuff are idiots. Ironically, the CEO mentions in this article that they have 750 people on the payroll. Eliminating 500 of those seems kind of out of the question.
http://levittown.patch.com/articles/lower-bucks-hospital-lays-off-30-employees
Oce North America - 9
I couldn't find a single news article to back this up with any kind of facts at all. Enough said.
Corning United Blood Services Gulf - 150
Again, there is absolutely not a single news story to back this claim up anywhere. If it happened, there would be a press release. Right wing blogs are announcing this with NO reference or citation.
Atlantic Lottery Corporation - 16
This is a Canadian company and these layoffs were announced NOV. 5th, a DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labradostory/2012/11/05/nb-atlantic-lotto-layoffs.html
Welch Allyn - 10% of manufacturing work force
These layoffs were announce on September 10th, almost two full months before Obama was re-elected. These are going to take place over THE NEXT THREE YEARS in a restructuring effort: http://www.qmed.com/news/welch-allyn-initiates-global-restructuring-including-layoffs
Dana Holding - 12% of work force
This is a total lie as well. The company released a financial report on Oct. 29th, 2012 and only said they were considering layoffs with NO specific numbers mentioned. The only place I can find this is on rightwing blogs, again, with no citations or references to any specifics. The company's report on Oct. 29th announced NO layoffs. http://thurbersthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/10/dana-considering-layoffs-as-obamacare.html
Stryker - approx 5%
These were announced on June 25, 2012 and it's in response to trying to compensate for a new 2.3% tax on medical devices as part of the new health care act. I don't have to tell you how little 2.3% is and there is also no indiction that it would be 5% of it's employee force. The latest news says 'more than 100' positions would be laid off. http://www.massdevice.com/news/stryker-begin-new-york-layoffs-ahead-medical-device-tax-wall-street-beat
Boston Scientific - Unspecific (sic) amount
These were announced in AUGUST and were a direct result of a change in management and a new CEO. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/29/us-bostonscientific-layoffs-idUSBRE87S0Z120120829
Medtronic - 1,000
ANNOUNCED SEPTEMBER 6TH, 2012 as a result of the company restructuring plan. http://www.massdevice.com/news/layoffs-medtronic-cut-another-500-jobs-hopes-saving-125m-year
Smith & Nephew - 80
This company is based in LONDON and these job cuts in Memphis were announced in September. This is the only real story I could find about it: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/ArticleEmail.aspx?id=64753
Abbott Labs - 550
Announced on October 17th, about TWO SOLID WEEKS before Obama was re-elected. The facts hurt, I guess: Half of these workers being laid off are in EUROPE. Even though they are laying these people off, the overall amount of workers at Abbott Labs has grown due to additional acquisitions of other companies. Full story here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/abbott-labs-cuts-550-jobs-more-layoffs-planned-2012-10-17
Covidien - 600
This is funny. The company denies any reports of layoffs in May of this year, no real news of layoffs since then: http://www.thesunchronicle.com/mansfield/covidien-denies-layoffs-report/article_a55f54db-b925-5b86-b246-136f2178e487.html?mode=story
Kinetic Concepts - 300
This was announced on JULY 13th, 2012 as part of restructuring after a $6.3 billion dollar buyout in 2011. http://www.massdevice.com/news/report-kinetic-concepts-lays-300-more
St. Jude - 300
This was announced NOV. 2, FOUR DAYS before Obama was re-elected. I wonder if Romney would have won if these lunatics would be blaming Romney for the job losses that occurred 4 days before anyone knew who was going to be the next president: It should also be noted that the company blames poor sales of defibrillators and pacemakers, not on the economy. http://www.startribune.com/business/176871351.html?refer=y
Hill Rom - 200
This is ANOTHER company where the right wing blogs continue to report a layoff in these numbers (200) where there is absolutely no real news source or citation for this. Repeating something over and over doesn't make it true. Just look at Fox: They said Romney would be elected for the past month 1,000 times. Didn't make it so. I would put a source but since there is no source for this, I will leave it alone
Darden Restaurants - 3%
This is the company that owns Red Lobster and the Olive Garden. All they are doing is cutting back hours so they aren't forced to cover employees' medical insurance. Typical big business: Just like Walmart: Wring your workers out for all you can get, work them JUST under the amount of hours where they would be provided some kind of health care security. Just a shitty company more than anything else but no reflection of the election at all but more of an attack on the new healthcare law.
JANCOA - 350
Utter lies. Jancoa is a janitorial outfit in Cincinnati, OH whose owner testified against the new health care law in congress. Funny that this reports she is laying off 350 workers when the owner herself REPORTS THAT THE ENTIRE COMPANY EMPLOYS 320 PEOPLE. Absolutely no layoffs reported anywhere from this company as of Nov. 9, 2012. Maybe it's republicans' wishful thinking? http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2012/07/11/jancoa-ceo-mary-miller-testified-on.html
submitted by gloomdoom to PoliticalDiscussion [link] [comments]

The Neckbeard

Background: so this is a story from about twenty minutes ago and in the perspective of my friend.(pardon spelling and errors my phone is a bit of an ass)
Cast:D(my friend) NB(neck beard)
So my friend was on the way to an interview at a casino and hotel. Note she is 18 so just barely able to work there. She is walking at a decent pace and looks at her phone to see the time. She reads it as 9:50 am and she needed to be there at 10 am. (Actual time was 9:40 am) and starts to book it. (Skip a bit and ender NB) She is on her way home disapointed and not hired and MB walks up to her asking if she has a number. (He didn't look like a NB but can still classify) 
D:"no I don't have a number" NB"well you want mine queen?" D"uhm... Sure?" They exchange numbers and she gets home. And he texts her. Asking if she smokes and wants to hang out(she takes it as ciggerets (pardon spelling) ) and she says no that she used to but stopped recently. And that she might come by. He asked her age and she said 16(lying since she doesn't hang out much. Kinda of a loner) and he said "Ma age is mearly a number"... That creeped her out and she stopped talking to him. He's tried to get her attention and still is as she is talking ti me in call. Note this isnt as bad as most other stories. But still. Damn.
submitted by SaintVandar to VoiceyHere [link] [comments]

It's Time: The Feature Length SoundPack V1.5 is here!

Hello everyone! This is MikePhones, formerly known as Book, and founder of the Feature Length SoundPack. I have come here to deliver to all of you the wondrous new update to the Feature Length SoundPack, renowned the world over for its extreme quality and style! And better yet, since PM isn't dying right as I type this, I can finally give to you a proper post, complete with reasoning and personal favorite picks. So come! Behold the wonders of the world's greatest SoundPack!

Track List

Battlefield

X04 - Battlefield - Silver Will (Arrange) [Sora no Kiseki]
T02 - Menu (Super Smash Bros. Melee) - Conflict's Chime(Long Version) [Bravely Default]
X25 - Battlefield Ver. 2 - Scars of Time [Chrono Cross]
W21 - Battlefield (Melee) - Kaine (Escape) [NieR]
W23 - Multi-Man Melee 1 (Melee) - Map F[Fire Emblem Fates]
So when choosing the songs for this pack over the last few years, I matched songs to stages based on colors and feel. Battlefield(Brawl) was always one of the best stages to choose for, because of the myriad of colors that he background would become over the course of matches. Combining this with the perfectly neutral grays of the stage itself, it left itself open to any sort of song, although it seemed to lend itself more to the melodic than the bass-centric, due to the lighter colors in the sky(although that has long been my policy on preferred songs in the first place. Fun fact, this was originally going to be called, way back in the day, semisonic's hack pack for the melodically inclined!) There is a tendency for my songs here to evolve as they go on, to better match the sky's changes. It should be noted, that though the songs were picked for Brawl's Battlefield, the Melee is still perfectly good with it. It's just not the focus.
MP's Pick - I'd have to go Conflict's Chime on this one. It's a long song, as all of them are in this SoundPack, but it only picks up, and even shifts tone as it goes on, so getting to the end always feels like more of a reward than anything else.

Smashville

N01 - Title(Animal Crossing) - Arashi no Saxophone 5 (Theme of Yagami Team) [King of Fighters XIII]
N02 - Go K.K. Rider! - Theme of Laura [Silent Hill 2]
N03 - 2:00 a.m. - Zero [Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War]
N06 - Town Hall and Tom Nook's Store - The Road to Tomorrow Follows Behind You [Wild Arms V]
N05 - The Roost - Sophisticated Fight(Remix) [Sora no Kiseki Zanmai]
Smashville is always an interesting stage to choose for. It's browns and almost oranges make for an interesting base to work with, allowing for everything from jazz to flamenco, and the fact that it changes appearance during different times of the day means that I can have more variation in what I do. For example, Theme of Laura is a song meant only for the night version, that could normally never cut it as fight music (it's just too laid back). But thanks to the night stage and it's cool blues, I could fit it in just fine. The only problem I have is the Saturday nights, which I don't have anything set for. Each song, being Feature LengthTM, takes up a ton of space, and I just couldn't justify that for 1/21st of the week.
MP's Pick - Oooh, this is a tough one. I'd say it's either with Sophisticated Fight, for consistent quality, or Zero, for the build up. I wasn't even aware a song could ramp up that hard until my friend actually complained that, 5 minutes into a match, it was putting too much pressure on him with the intensity. Actually, I'll have to give it to Zero then, for making last stock neutral even scarier than it already is!

Pokemon Stadium 2

H01 - Pokemon Main Theme - vs. Final Boss (Bittercold Last Battle) [Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity]
H03 - Road to Viridian City (From Pallet Town/Pewter City) - Each Promise (Theme of Elizabeth Team) [King of Fighers XIII]
H02 - Pokemon Center - La Mer [Suikoden IV]
H04 - Pokemon Gym/Evolution - Weak Executioner II [Blazblue: ChronoPhantasma]
H05 - Wild Pokemon Battle! (Ruby / Saphire) - NGAHHH!!/Spear of Justice [Undertale]
Pokemon Stadium was always an easy pick. It's blue. It's pretty much -just- blue. So pick some blue shit. I mean sure, you've gotta make it battle-like enough that it matches the generally sharper geometry, but it's not a trial like some stages are. I'm looking at you, Delfino's Secret! There really isn't much more to say.
MP's Pick - Finally, a clear cut choice. It's La Mer! Easy, right? La Mer was originally the first BRSTM I ever made, because I couldn't believe no one had done it before, and I always considered it perhaps my best decision. Originally on Delfino Plaza, before Secret came around, it literally means "the sea," and accordingly, any blue stage'll do it just fine. Just trust me on this.

Green Hill Zone

U01 - Green Hill Zone - Metal Harbor [Sonic Adventure 2: Battle]
U04 - Angel Island Zone - May's Theme(Starry Story) [Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-]
U02 - Scrap Brain Zone - Combat Night (ATS Version) - For Parhelion Peak Act 1 [Sonic: After The Sequel]
U03 - Emerald Hill Zone - Espresso With Bayonetta - For Cyan City Act 3 [Sonic: After the Sequel]
U06 - Sonic Boom - Blue Water Blue Sky [Guilty Gear XX]
U07 - Super Sonic Racing - Wave Ocean - The Inlet [Sonic 2006]
U08 - Open Your Heart - Rooftop Run [Sonic Unleashed]
U10 - Sonic Heroes - Like a Dragon [Persona 4 Arena]
U11 - Right There, Ride On - Escape From the City [Sonic Adventure 2: Battle]
U12 - HIS WORLD (Instrumental) - Aquarium Park Act 1 [Sonic Colors]
U13 - Seven Rings in Hand - Green Forest [Sonic Adventure 2: Battle]
Oh Green Hill Zone. The most Sonic of all stages, and boy does it feel it. This was a stage where matching the color and feel meant that a lot of sonic music got in, just because they already were designed for it. Expect a lot of upbeat guitars, some upbeat synths, upbeat everything, really. This was a fun stage to work with, using those bright greens and browns, and I tried to match the simplicity of the design as well as I could. This is one of the biggest stages for song selection in the game, and I was able to fill all but one slot, due to space limitations. That's just the tradeoff for all those victory themes, I guess.
MP's Pick - Oh god why is this so hard. There are pretty much too many songs for me to even try this, so I'm going to pick either Starry Story or Escape from the City. The latter, because it should be in everyone's pack, and the former because I just feel it really suits the stage, in addition to being a kickass song. But then Aquarium Park, and... Fuck it, this is too hard. I'm out.

Delfino Plaza

A13 - Delfino Plaza - Final Boss (Phase 2)[Splatoon]
A07 - Title / Ending (Super Mario World) - Katamaritaino (Roll Me In) [Katamari Damacy]
A08 - Main Theme (New Super Mario Bros) - Death by Glamour [Undertale]
A14 - Ricco Harbor - A Crimson Rose and a Gin Tonic (YMCK 8bit Mix) [Katamari Forever]
A15 - Main Theme (Super Mario 64) - Everlasting Love [Katamari Damacy Remix]
Delfino's. Goddamn. Secret. Visually, it's a great stage. I actually like it quite a bit. But apparently, they couldn't decide what colors to use with it. So they picked ALL OF THEM. This stage has given me so many headaches, as it really throws off the synestesia formula I've worked so hard to build. So instead of thinking, what would go well with the primary colors of this stage, I had to think, what game has enough colors that it's music could handle this chaos? And so we arrived at the Katamari. Initially, 4 out of the 5 songs here were Katamari vocal tunes, but in the interest of tournament play and not getting weird looks from my friends, I tuned that down to 2.
MP's Pick - Katamaritaino. It was the first song I thought would suit the stage, and it was the first one I had to make for it. That goddamn thing took 2 hours to loop well, but I feel it was still worth it in the end. It's got that cool, casual feel that works on Plaza and Secret alike, and it's a full 4 minutes long. Nothing to complain about here.

Bowser's Castle

A21 - Luigi Circuit - So Long-eh Bowser! [Portrait of a Plumber]
A22 - Waluigi Pinball - The Wretched Automatons [NieR]
A23 - Rainbow Road - Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab [Castlevania: Lament of Innocence]
R05 - Mario Tennis/Mario Golf - Cross Thought (Gordeau vs Chaos) [Under Night In-Birth]
Bowser's Castle is an odd stage for me. It largely fills the role, at least color-wise, that Norfair already filled. But due to it's darker, less electronic, and more gothic feel, I could put a couple of the old Drac's Cass songs on here without them seeming out of place. So it's got a few slow burn songs, like the Wretched Automatons and So Long-eh Bowser(another pain to loop, by the way), a hype up song in Cross Thought, and Gothic Disco in Anti-Soul. It also used to have the awesome Roar of the Departed Souls, but it had too long an awkward buildup for it to really be viable, and it was excessively difficult to remove, so I had no choice but to take it out.
MP's Pick - I'm going to have to give it this time to So Long-eh Bowser. It's a wonderful song, very intimidating, and it lacks the enormous buildup required for the Wretched Automatons. Plus, it's the only one here that's thematically relevant, so I guess I gotta give it that.

Fountain of Dreams

A17 - Fountain of Dreams (Melee) - Archer of Destiny [Phantasy Star Online 2]
Q02 - Gyromite - Love You Love You Love [Mighty Switch Force]
Q01 - Famicom Medley - Maze of Life [Persona Q]
Q13 - Power-Up Music - Like a Dragon (Girl Pop Mix) [Persona 4 Arena Ultimax]
Q14 - Douchuumen (Nazo no Murasamejo) - Fly Me to the Moon(Climax Mix) [Bayonetta]
Fountain of Dreams may be my favorite stage to work with in this game. It's reflective blues and purples, with the cool yellows in the background, lend themselves very well to smooth, melodic electronic music. Synths feel at home here, as does smooth jazz, and it can blend laid back songs and high intensity songs effortlessly. I always feel it's a waste when people just stick some drum and bass kirby here, when there's so much more that can be done! But I digress. The point is it's a great stage. Go play it.
MP's Pick - There's so many songs right at home here. Love You Love You Love, Fly Me to the Moon, even Archer of Destiny! I honestly can't choose, so instead I'll just recommend random. Whatever comes up is the best.

Wario Land

M01 - WarioWare, Inc. - Look Pimpin [Mad World]
M02 - WarioWare, Inc. Medley - Guns and Roses [Baccano]
M08 - Ashley's Song - Kuma Kuma Circus! [Persona 4 Arena]
M07 - Ashley's Song (JP) - Scourge Sisters [Homestuck]
M06 - Mike's Song - Baccano no Theme! [Baccano]
M05 - Mike's Song (JP) - Who Is Queen (Theme of Female Fighters Team) [King of Fighters XIII]
M04 - Mona Pizza's Song - Dummy! [Undertale]
M03 - Mona Pizza's Song(JP) - Title Theme [Wan Nyan Slash]
Wario Ware, now Wario Land, is a bit of a strange beast. It used to be good for jazz, brass, hip hop, and chiptune. Then they redid it, as Wario Land! And it changed... Nothing. Every single thing that used to work for the other stage still works for this. It always seemed to have a bit of attitude that other stages didn't, leading to Look Pimpin' and other songs I wouldn't really risk putting on other stages. The red and gold remains as versatile as the blue and purple from the old stage were, and the fact that the old stage remains available as a party stage means the old things ain't going anywhere.
MP's Pick - I suppose I'll have to go Guns and Roses on this one. It's got that classic big band feel that suits the stage oh so well, it's got the length, the solos, and the evolution needed for a top song in this pack. Just beautiful.

Final Destination

X05 - Final Destination - Aqua's Song - Brave Version [Fire Emblem Fates]
T01 - Credits (Super Smash Bros.) - Beyond The Bounds [Zone of the Enders 2]
T03 - Opening (Super Smash Bros. Melee) - "IDOLA" The Strange Fruits [Phantasy Star Online Episode III]
W25 - Final Destination (Melee) - Shudder [Einhander]
W31 - Giga Bowser (Melee) - Song of the Ancients (Fate) [NieR]
Final Destination is another really fun stage to work with. Musically, it's bright neon purple and gray contrast make it a harsher fountain of dreams. It lends itself wonderfully to harsher electronic songs than perhaps any other stage, such as Shudder, and Beyond the Bounds(which I never thought I'd get to put in any stage), and it's evolving background supports evolving songs, as well as clear vocals as in Aqua's Song, Shudder, Song of the Ancients, and Beyond the Bounds again. That doesn't mean it isn't good for other genres as well. Serpent Eating the World is a wonderful, common pick here, that was in my own pack for almost 2 years until I got tired of it.
MP's Pick - It's a close one, but I'm going to have to go with Song of the Ancients here. Its heavy percussion mixed with softer supporting violins lends a sense of scale to battles here, as the singers provide much needed melodic overtones. Perfection.

Yoshi's Island

E02/E27 - Obstacle Course - Bollywood/Another Winter [Scott Pilgrim vs. The World]
E01 - Ending (Yoshi's Story) - The Won-Stoppable Wonderful 100 (English Version) [The Wonderful 101]
E03 - Yoshi's Island - Katamari on the Rocks [Katamari Damacy]
E05 - Flower Field - Mount Wario [Mario Kart 8]
E06 - Wildlands - Loveable Yandere [No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle]
Yoshi's Island is an interesting stage to work on, and a terrible one to play. Generally, it works well with lighter and fluffier stuff, not quite as guitar based as GHZ, but maybe some brass, maybe some acoustic. Maybe some katamari, even. The changing seasons certainly seem to pose a problem, but in reality, they don't change the feel of the stage much at all. The worst they do is mess with the first song(or 2, as it stands) in the list, which can only pretty much play their first minute or so before they get cut off each time. The cyclical nature of the season rotation (starting with a random season each time) makes it difficult for songs to evolve in time, as FD and Battlefield do. Therefore, it is important to pick songs that work with any color scheme at any time, so long as it remains pastel. These factors limit the stage's appeal, as well, resulting in a weaker tracklist overall than some other legal stages. The highlights, however, more than make up for it.
MP's Pick - Lovable Yandere. There can be no other. The song's great, light, fluffy, yet it remains battle music. I always love these unconventional boss themes, and few do it better than this.

Distant Planet

L06 - Main Theme (Pikmin) - Planet Wisp [Sonic Colors]
L01 - World Map (Pikmin) - Final Boss (Phase 2) [Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon]
L07 - Stage CleaTitle (Pikmin) - Map A4 [Fire Emblem Fates]
L02 - Forest of Hope - Turn the Tides [Avizura]
L04 - Ai no Uta - Conquest (Ablaze) [Fire Emblem Awakening]
L08 - Ai no Uta (French Version) - Deep Mountains, Dark Valleys [Muramasa Arrange]
L05 - Tane no Uta - The Sun Rises [Okami]
Distant Planet. Project M's one and only true "forest stage." The olive tones allow for a much different song selection than the majority of the stages, being well suited to flutes, pianos, and generally a more Eastern orchestral feel. A good number of the tracks here are Japanese influenced, or Celtotropic, things outside the bounds of what most stages can support. And the way the lighting and the rain sounds come in allow for even more variety than normal.
MP's Pick - It's a tough call, but I think I'll have to go Planet Wisp, personally. The bass is wonderful, it's got a classic feel to it, and when the piano mixes with the rain, it's absolutely amazing.

Norfair

D01 - Main Theme (Metroid) - Dr. Eggman Showdown [Sonic Lost World]
D03 - Ending (Metroid) - It Has to Be This Way (Platinum Mix) [Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance]
D02 - Norfair - Heavy Day [Guilty Gear Xrd]
D05 - Theme of Samus Aran, Space Warrior - Cauldron Rave [Cerebrawl]
R12 - Battle Scene/Final Boss (Golden Sun) - RISING [Blazblue: ChronoPhantasma]
R07 - Marionation Gear - Big Blast Sonic [Guilty Gear Xrd]
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Buttrock Caverns. A wonderful, deep, and angry red permeates the atmosphere here, making it the perfect place for hype-up Buttrock. I didn't really have a stage dedicated to hard-rocking, classic "Fight Music," as we think of it, and I couldn't ask for a better example. The harsh look of the platforms, on top of the lava below, allows for electric guitar, rough vocals, and aggressive drums like nowhere else, while also allowing fusion hip hop like Cauldron Rave and orchestral pieces in Eggman Showdown with equal ease.
MP's Pick - As much as I love me some Guilty Gear, I'm going to have to go with In The End It Has To Be This Way, for its fade-vocals. Metal Gear Rising has a way to instate vocals only as the game reaches maximum hype, and the Platinum Mix duplicates this effect with the greatest of ease, with the vocals coming in around 4 minutes into the match. Musical evolution is a powerful force (and the primary point of this SoundPack), and this song demonstrates admirably why this is so.

Dreamland

W07 - Dreamland (Super Smash Bros.) - Spirited Girl [Persona 4 Arena]
W06 - Green Greens (Melee) - Catus Carnival [Blazblue Continuum Shift Extend]
Dreamland is another light and fluffy stage, with happy trees and floating dedede's abound. The pastel greens and browns match with the blues of the background to create a pretty damn cheerful atmosphere, so I tried to match that in my musical selections, with lighthearted pianos, organs, and guitars being the order of the day. After all, you're going to live forever, might as well enjoy it while you do, right?
MP's Pick - Catus Carnival by a slim margin. While Spirited Girl fades out the piano into the background pretty quickly, the organ takes center stage in CC, backed by a ska guitar, piano, and very, very quiet brass section for the perfect playful tune.

Yoshi's Story

W05 - Yoshi's Island (Melee) - Yoshi's Athletic Techno [Yoshi's Island Remix]
W15 - Super Mario Bros 3 (Melee) - Beloved Tomboyish Girl [Touhou Hisoutensoku: Unthinkable Natural Law]
Yoshi's Story is a... limited stage, option wise. Everything it does, visually at least, other stages do better. It's upbeat, but not as much as Green Hill Zone. It's fluffy, but not as much as Dreamland. It doesn't change like Island does. It's a Yoshi stage that isn't Island. And that's about as much as I can say about it. Athletic Techno went here because I felt the tracklist needed something to elevate it on the level of Island, and BTG went here because I needed something else to put here, and ska fit the bill nicely. I used to have Earth, Wind, and Fire's September here too, but I was worried about copyright claims on youtube's end, so I decided to remove it to protect your videos.
MP's Pick - Yoshi's Athletic Techno is the best thing I could do here. It fits the stage, has a good beat, and moves with the match.

Castle Siege

J02 - Fire Emblem Theme - Map E3 [Fire Emblem Fates]
J06 - Preparing to Advance - Id (Purpose) [Fire Emblem: Awakening]
J07 - Winning Road - Roy's Hope - Don't Speak Her Name! [Fire Emblem: Awakening]
J03 - Shadow Dragon Medley - The Edge of Green [Radiant Historia]
J13 - Eternal Bond (Ike's Theme) - ASGORE [Undertale]
Castle Seige is a grand stage, in every sense of the word. It's pretty damn easy to make picks as a result, from the sweeping sad sonatas of the Fire Emblem games to the powerful beats of Undertale and Radiant Historia. The meteoric rain falling from the sky lends a scale immediately that every other stage has to build up to, bringing with it an inherent sadness of sorts that allows fight music of a different sort. It's a great stage for music, and the only reasons it isn't completely full are Power Hungry Fool, and the fact it isn't as good as some of its counterparts.
MP's Pick - As much as I love ASGORE, I'm going to have to go with Id -Purpose- here. It's just the clear choice, as perhaps the greatest finale song of any Fire Emblem ever. It goes through so many motifs throughout, maintaining a consistent quality regardless. Just amazing.

Infinite Glacier

Q07 - Ice Climber - Go Blow Snow For A Year [housethegrate]
Q06 - Balloon Trip - Dude it's a mystery. I don't know what it is or how I got it. I think JCeaser may have been involved? It's unclear. [???]
Q08 - Shin Onigashima - Phendrana Drifts [Metroid Prime]
Q05 - Clu Clu Land - Ice Ice Outpost [Mario Kart 8]
Infinite Glacier, land of the shenanigan, is ridiculously chill. Beyond the pun, the ice blues of this stage lend themselves so easily to chill guitars and gentle synths it can only be called effortless. Just go here, wavedash around for a while, and ruminate on your life.
MP's Pick - Whatever the hell that mystery song is (seriously, can ANYONE tell me? I'm slowly being convinced I imagined the whole thing...) It's cool, relaxed, and perfectly encapsulates the essence of the stage in a way nothing else can.

Skyworld

P03 - Skyworld - Desperate Fight [Valkyria Chronicles]
P02 - Title (Kid Icarus) - Vega's Theme [Street Fighter 4]
P04 - Kid Icarus Original Medley - A Muzzle Dancing In Hatred [Wild Arms 5]
Skyworld, with it's dusky yellows, exists solely as a breeding ground for flamenco tunes. No one should ever have a reason to play it besides to hear its godly guitars and clapping clavettes. But that's okay, because those things are reason enough in and of themselves.
MP's Pick - Vega's theme narrowly ekes it out over Muzzle Dancing by virtue of its (fairly significantly) quicker start, although I don't think it's highs reach as high its competitor. Both are wonderful regardless.

Lylat Cruise

G10 - Space Armada - Jupiter Jazz [Cowboy Bebop]
Q12 - Tunnel Scene (X) - KDD-0063 (Theme of K' Team) [King of Fighters XIII]
Lylat Cruise can be considered Fountain of Dreams' harsher cousin. The ice blues of this stage mix with the black and gray for a rather stark contrast, allowing for a bit of a more aggressive sound musically while still maintaining that techno feel from all the other space stages.
MP's Pick - KDD-0063 wins here. It's the more solid song overall, and though it has a far shorter loop than Jupiter Jazz, it remains more interesting throughout.

Big Blue

W29 - Mute City (Melee) - Let's Go Away [Daytona USA]
W11 - Big Blue (Melee) - Persona Summoners [Persona 3: Spring of Birth]
Big Blue, the quintessential party stage. I couldn't very well call myself a SoundPack auteur if I neglected here, now, could I? To me, everything about this stage screams "classic arcade racing." Those vibrant primary colors fill the screen constantly, shifting throughout, but that blue never changes, and neither does the gray of the asphalt. So those were the colors and features I tried to base my song selection off of.
MP's Pick - DAY-TO-NAAAAAAA! Everything about this song and it's wonderful cheese speaks to me on an emotional level. It's just so perfect.

Hyrule Castle

C01 - Title (The Legend of Zelda) - Sleeping Treasure in the Sand [Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles]
C18 - The Hidden Village - Veo Lu Sluice [Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers]
Hyrule Castle is a stage of grays, browns and greens. A fairly standard fantasy castle here, its most notable feature remains it's correspondingly regal feel, which I tried to use in my matching attempts. I left the majority of the music intact here, as it remains my favorite zelda stage music-wise, but it felt so visually similar to the crystal chronicles games that I just couldn't help myself.
MP's Pick - Veo Lu Sluice has that classic aristocratic feel in addition to the flamenco spice I remain so fond of.

Metal Cavern

A01 - Metal Battle (Super Smash Bros. Melee) - If We Act Like Scholars (Ice Tower) [Wild Arms V]
There's really not much left to say for any of these remaining stages, so the reasoning will be paused until the victory themes.

Peach's Castle

W02 - Rainbow Cruise (Melee) - Rainbow Road (N64) [Mario Kart 8]

Fourside

K10 - You Call This a Utopia?! - Ride!! [Mad World]

Luigi's Mansion

A09 - Luigi's Mansion Theme - Temple of the Drifting Sands [NieR]

Jungle Japes

W03 - Jungle Japes (Melee) - DK Rap (Looped) [Donkey Kong 64]

Hyrule Temple

W24 - Temple (Melee) - Sky Sands [Kirby Air Ride]

Spear Pillar

H08 - Dialga / Palkia Battle at Spear Pillar! - Primal Dialga's Fight to the Finish [Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky]

Practice Stage

X07 - Online Practice Stage - Noontide [Guilty Gear XX]

Halberd

F08 - 02 Battle - Bombardment 2 [Skies of Arcadia]

PictoChat

R02 - PictoChat - Gestation [Tanguy Ukelele Orchestra]

Menu Themes

X02 - Project M 3.5 Main Theme - Triangulum -Dead of Night ver.- [SMT Devil Survivor 2 Arrange]
X03 - Menu 2 - Play That Beat [Cerebrawl]
W30 - Menu (Melee) - Main Theme [Persona 4 Dancing All Night]
X01 - Super Smash Bros Brawl Main Theme - Break Out Of -Free Mix- [Persona 4 Arena Ultimax]

Victory Themes

Z01 - Mario Bros Series - Pursuit ~ Keep Pressing On [Ace Attourney Dual Destinies]
Z02 - Donkey Kong Series - Donkey Kong Country Returns (Vocals) [Super Smash Bros. for Wii U]
Z03 - Legend of Zelda Series - Battle Theme(Hero) [The Last Story]
Z04 - Metroid Series - Crash Man Stage [Mega Man 2]
Z05 - Yoshi - Staff Roll [Splatoon]
Z06 - Kirby Series - Groose's Theme [The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword]
Z07 - Star Fox Series - Knock You Out [Street Fighter III: Third Strike]
Z08 - Pokemon Series - Challenger Invited [Sora no Kiseki]
Z10 - Captain Falcon - Burning Rangers Emergency Quest [Phantasy Star Online 2]
Z11 - Mother Series - Dance Hymn of the Soul (Disco In Velvet Room) [Persona 4 Dancing All Night]
Z16 - Ice Climbers - Extras [Sonic 2006]
Z17 - Fire Emblem Series - More Than Just Comrades [DJ the Snake]
Z18 - Mr. Game & Watch - Metal Crusher [Undertale]
Z21 - Wario Victory - Starring Wario! [Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix]
Z22 - Meta Knight - N.M.H. [No More Heroes]
Z23 - Pit - Vyse's Theme [Skies of Arcadia]
Z25 - Olimar - Boo Night Fever [Paper Mario Sticker Star]
Z35 - R.O.B. - Andy's Theme [Advance Wars]
Z46 - Solid Snake - Way to Fall [Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]
Z47 - Sonic The Hedgehog - Result [Sonic 2006]
N12 - Bowser - Big Top Bop [Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze]
When picking character themes, I felt that using just the series a character was from was a limiter too severe, and instead used a variety of methods to choose their themes. It could be based on the character's design, win pose, origin, their personality, atmosphere, anything.
So that's everything. The whole of the Feature Length SoundPack as of version 1.5, and probably the last version of the SoundPack to be released. But do not despair, children! For it shall emerge from the ashes, not as a mere SoundPack, but instead, ascending to a Hack Pack! Yes, the next version of the Feature Length Hack Pack will include costumes as well as music, costumes like Casino Luigi, and Hooded Marth, all perfectly tournament legal.
So go! Enjoy the pack, and don't forget to give me any feedback or requests you may have! If you would like me to compose a SoundPack for you, or even just make a BRSTM, send me a PM, and we'll work something out. Happy New Year, everybody!

Downloads

DropBox Hackless
Mega Mirror
submitted by Book_ssb to SSBPM [link] [comments]

This is a response to the right wing viral email about companies laying off employees due to Obama's re-election. Refutes almost all of the claims (with links/citations). X-post from r/politicaldiscussion

Westinghouse - 200
Total lie. They are laying off 50 people, not 200, and have been slowly closing their operations down since Sept. 11, 2011. So they announced the company will be closed by 2015 in 2011: http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/20755025/article-More-layoffs-announced-at-Anniston-weapons-incinerator?instance=1st_left
Research in Motion Ltd - 3,000
These layoffs were announced in June of 2012. Not because of the economy but because they create a product that has lost demand since other competitors have sold more goods: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/11/08/research-in-motion-cuts-jobs-at-irving-headquarters/
Lightyear Network Solutions - 15
These aren't layoffs...they are permanent in an effort to downsize a company that has been losing money for a long time. http://www.wkyt.com/wymt/home/headlines/Company-lays-off-workers-in-Pikeville-177766221.html
Providence Journal - 23
This is a newspaper that has seen its circulation decline from 90,085 to 83,733 in a year's time. They have been regularly laying off employees like every other newspaper across the country as less Americans get their news from newspapers and choose to get it free from the Internet and television: http://www2.turnto10.com/business/2012/nov/08/providence-journal-announces-more-layoffs-ar-1233784/
Hawker Beechcraft - 410
This company declared bankruptcy last year and sold to a chinese company in July of 2011. This recent round of layoffs was 170 people and their business has been in decline since 2008. They make luxury private jets for rich people and I'm assuming the rich can only own a certain amount of private luxury jets at one time: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120802/us-hawker-beechcraft-layoffs/
Boeing 61,000
Boeing expanded it's business dramatically during the Iraq war with HUGE contracts with the defense department. As the war came to a close, they saw their business decline. I guess if you want constant war, Boeing would always be making billions from the government but this is their official statement: "Boeing said the changes were not a response to the threat of additional, across-the-board U.S. budget cuts due to take effect on January 2, or the outcome of U.S. elections, but represented another step in its continuing drive to "be more competitive while investing in technologies and people." So the company itself is deying it has anything to do with the presidential elections and that they layoffs were planned and expected: http://www.catholic.org/business/story.php?id=48428
CVPH Medical Center - 17
This hospital received $3.2 million dollars in federal grant money to keep their doors open but their expenses exceeded their revenues by more than $400,000. They simply don't know how to run a business apparently. http://www.catholic.org/business/story.php?id=48428
US Cellular - 980
This was the result of a sale of a company to a competitor. Sprint (cell phone company) purchased US Cellular to eliminate a competitor in a certain market. This was a planned sale that took place over the past month, it just happened to be announced on Wednesday. It takes longer than one day to sell a mult-million dollar company: http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/2012/11/carriers-Sprint-Buys-US-Cellular-Midwest-Markets-for-480M/
Commerzbank - 6,000
This is the funniest one so far. This is a bank from Germany and Poland that has absolutely no connection to the U.S. or Obama In looking for official layoff reports, I found this statement from the bank from Nov. 8 where they announced they are investing $2 BILLION euros in their company. Sounds like growth to me. https://www.commerzbank.com/en/hauptnavigation/presse/pressemitteilungen/archiv1/2012/quartal_12_04/presse_archiv_detail_12_04_9794.html
Iberia - 7,000
This is the second funniest because it's an airline out of SPAIN that has no connections (or jobs) to the U.S. Spain's economy has been sinking harder that the U.S. since 2007. Absolutely no connection to America or Obama: http://www.theworld.org/2012/11/spains-iberia-airlines-announces-layoffs/
Momentive Performance Materials - 150
This is a TEMPORARY LAYOFF. All of these jobs will be reinstated in two weeks, as reported by the owner of the company here: http://www.tylerstarnews.com/page/content.detail/id/508789/Momentive-Inc--plans-temporary-layoffs-for-150.html?nav=5008
Brake Parts, LLC - 75
These layoffs were disclosed on Oct. 29. I'm afraid that was a full week BEFORE Obama's re-election. Absolutely no connection here: http://www.tylerstarnews.com/page/content.detail/id/508789/Momentive-Inc--plans-temporary-layoffs-for-150.html?nav=5008
Gameforge Berlin - 20
I'm not even looking this up. If people are stupid and desperate enough to blame Obama for the layoff of 20 people in Berlin, Germany, they are idiots. But then again, I wonder if they even realize that Berlin is in Germany and not in America. Probably not.
Vestas Wind Systems 1,700
Huge lie. First sentence in this story reports the layoffs to be 200 and not 1,700. Blatant lie there. It should be noted that this is a company from Denmark and not an American company. EDIT: I stand corrected on this as I found a quote from the article: The combined layoffs, plus some attrition and relocations, have reduced Vestas' Colorado workforce from 1,700 to 1,200 this year. So we can assume the total number of employees is 1,700 (the amount the email suggests was laid off) and that the numbers laid off amount to 500. http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_21754574
Husqvarna - 390
This is a company based in Sweden, again absolutely no connection to Obama or the U.S. In fact, the majority of those affected are in Sweden or where their products are made in Poland: http://www.appliancemagazine.com/news.php?article=1626614&zone=0&first=1
Ericsson - 14,000
This is another funny one. Ericsson is a Swedish company (like Husqvarna) and those layoffs are in Sweden. They are not 14,000, they are 1,550. Pretty big difference: http://www.i4u.com/2012/11/sony-ericsson/ericsson-swedens-job-announces-cuts
SRA International - 222
Another blatant lie. These layoffs were planned, (like another one) on October 29, 2012. A full week before Obama was re-elected. Here is all the info to prove that: http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2012/11/06/sra-international-to-lay-off-222-in.html
PerkinElmer - 75
This company is moving operations overseas to save money on having to pay Americans a livable wage. The governor of MA tried to talk them into keeping the jobs in America but the company refused to discuss it with them before making the decision to outsource their jobs: http://articles.courant.com/2012-01-18/business/hc-perkinelmer-layoffs-20120118_1_transfer-jobs-perkinelmer-global-stage
Majestic Star Casino and Hotel - 80
THIS is a company trying to destroy their union. Their workers are in a union and their contract ran out Oct. 31st. The company has made more money this year than they did last year but they are still cutting jobs despite making more money. A quote from the union representative: “These out-of-state owners who control billions are coming to Indiana and taking away our jobs,” said Coleman. It is also worth mentioning that these layoffs were announced on Nov. 6th before the election was officially over and anyone knew who won.
http://posttrib.suntimes.com/news/lake/16200678-418/layoffs-hit-garys-majestic-star.html
Center for Hospice NY - 80
TOTAL LIE: This company is renovating its current location and these layoffs will occur NEXT YEAR and they will be TEMPORARY according to the person in charge: http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121106/CITYANDREGION/121109477/1002
Bristol-Myers - 500
Numbers are wrong. It's 470 and everyone agrees that this is the direct result of mismanagement under CEO Lamberto Andreotti...quote from the story: "nominee for worst chief executive of the year." http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/bristol-myers-slash-480-sales-related-jobs-nj/2012-11-06
Lower Bucks Hospital - 500
This is one of the biggest lies: THIRTY people were laid off. 30. Not 500. And the layoffs occurred on NOV.5, THE DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION. People who believe this stuff are idiots. Ironically, the CEO mentions in this article that they have 750 people on the payroll. Eliminating 500 of those seems kind of out of the question.
http://levittown.patch.com/articles/lower-bucks-hospital-lays-off-30-employees
Oce North America - 9
I couldn't find a single news article to back this up with any kind of facts at all. Enough said.
Corning United Blood Services Gulf - 150
Again, there is absolutely not a single news story to back this claim up anywhere. If it happened, there would be a press release. Right wing blogs are announcing this with NO reference or citation.
Atlantic Lottery Corporation - 16
This is a Canadian company and these layoffs were announced NOV. 5th, a DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labradostory/2012/11/05/nb-atlantic-lotto-layoffs.html
Welch Allyn - 10% of manufacturing work force
These layoffs were announce on September 10th, almost two full months before Obama was re-elected. These are going to take place over THE NEXT THREE YEARS in a restructuring effort: http://www.qmed.com/news/welch-allyn-initiates-global-restructuring-including-layoffs
Dana Holding - 12% of work force
This is a total lie as well. The company released a financial report on Oct. 29th, 2012 and only said they were considering layoffs with NO specific numbers mentioned. The only place I can find this is on rightwing blogs, again, with no citations or references to any specifics. The company's report on Oct. 29th announced NO layoffs. http://thurbersthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/10/dana-considering-layoffs-as-obamacare.html
Stryker - approx 5%
These were announced on June 25, 2012 and it's in response to trying to compensate for a new 2.3% tax on medical devices as part of the new health care act. I don't have to tell you how little 2.3% is and there is also no indiction that it would be 5% of it's employee force. The latest news says 'more than 100' positions would be laid off. http://www.massdevice.com/news/stryker-begin-new-york-layoffs-ahead-medical-device-tax-wall-street-beat
Boston Scientific - Unspecific (sic) amount
These were announced in AUGUST and were a direct result of a change in management and a new CEO. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/29/us-bostonscientific-layoffs-idUSBRE87S0Z120120829
Medtronic - 1,000
ANNOUNCED SEPTEMBER 6TH, 2012 as a result of the company restructuring plan. http://www.massdevice.com/news/layoffs-medtronic-cut-another-500-jobs-hopes-saving-125m-year
Smith & Nephew - 80
This company is based in LONDON and these job cuts in Memphis were announced in September. This is the only real story I could find about it: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/ArticleEmail.aspx?id=64753
Abbott Labs - 550
Announced on October 17th, about TWO SOLID WEEKS before Obama was re-elected. The facts hurt, I guess: Half of these workers being laid off are in EUROPE. Even though they are laying these people off, the overall amount of workers at Abbott Labs has grown due to additional acquisitions of other companies. Full story here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/abbott-labs-cuts-550-jobs-more-layoffs-planned-2012-10-17
Covidien - 600
This is funny. The company denies any reports of layoffs in May of this year, no real news of layoffs since then: http://www.thesunchronicle.com/mansfield/covidien-denies-layoffs-report/article_a55f54db-b925-5b86-b246-136f2178e487.html?mode=story
Kinetic Concepts - 300
This was announced on JULY 13th, 2012 as part of restructuring after a $6.3 billion dollar buyout in 2011. http://www.massdevice.com/news/report-kinetic-concepts-lays-300-more
St. Jude - 300
This was announced NOV. 2, FOUR DAYS before Obama was re-elected. I wonder if Romney would have won if these lunatics would be blaming Romney for the job losses that occurred 4 days before anyone knew who was going to be the next president: It should also be noted that the company blames poor sales of defibrillators and pacemakers, not on the economy. http://www.startribune.com/business/176871351.html?refer=y
Hill Rom - 200
This is ANOTHER company where the right wing blogs continue to report a layoff in these numbers (200) where there is absolutely no real news source or citation for this. Repeating something over and over doesn't make it true. Just look at Fox: They said Romney would be elected for the past month 1,000 times. Didn't make it so. I would put a source but since there is no source for this, I will leave it alone
Darden Restaurants - 3%
This is the company that owns Red Lobster and the Olive Garden. All they are doing is cutting back hours so they aren't forced to cover employees' medical insurance. Typical big business: Just like Walmart: Wring your workers out for all you can get, work them JUST under the amount of hours where they would be provided some kind of health care security. Just a shitty company more than anything else but no reflection of the election at all but more of an attack on the new healthcare law.
JANCOA - 350
Utter lies. Jancoa is a janitorial outfit in Cincinnati, OH whose owner testified against the new health care law in congress. Funny that this reports she is laying off 350 workers when the owner herself REPORTS THAT THE ENTIRE COMPANY EMPLOYS 320 PEOPLE. Absolutely no layoffs reported anywhere from this company as of Nov. 9, 2012. Maybe it's republicans' wishful thinking? http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2012/07/11/jancoa-ceo-mary-miller-testified-on.html
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