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If the SEC were abolished there would still be an array of state Blue Sky laws plus common law remedies for fraud and such.
Will President Musk abolish the SEC??
I don't think he'll be allowed to go that far, but I'm sure he'd like to do it.
Let's face it, if he can abolish the Consumer Protection Agency, Joe Sixpack doesn't have much protection left.
Thanks for sharing Charlie's story. He is an inspiring Dude. I hope he has a good teaching hospital that specializes in his cancer type in North Carolina.
Remember the SEC came about in 1934. Stocks publicly traded long before then under state and common law. NYSE dates back to 1792.
Cancer Charlie report: My cancer-ridden frenn and long-time traveling and adventure compadre is still alive. He and his keeper have relocated to Cornelius, NC from Logan, Utah where they were both profs at USU. They met in the Research Triangle area when both were in gratt skool, he a farmboy from the UppaMidwess and she an Irish-derived ginger lass (very spunky - butt nott in the UK usage of that term, well mebbe?) from Boston with a fambly summer home on the Cape. Their wedding was at the Falmouth Yacht Club and I bought a memento coffee cup from there. I met Charlie when he was an undergrad helper at Lunatic Labs and whilst he started as an animal caretaker, I (and OrthoBuddy, butt mostly me) got him to work on my research and taught him many molecular biology techniques. In fact, he and OrthoBuddy undertook the very tedious task of reading and recording the sequencing and primer-extension sequencing autoradiograms that I and another undergrad tech who worked for/with me cranked ~OUTT at about 5-6 sequencing gels per day. That other undergrad tech, Tony K, is a top prof at Yale and ran its neuroscience program for many years. I made him a co-author on one of my publications and convinced him to apply to gratt skool at MIT, where the dude whose desk and lab bench I inherited was doing a postdoc with Gunther Blobel at the Whitehead Institute. Tony had a great gratt skool run and postdoc, then became a prof at Yale and eventually a BiggDawg running a university-wide program (that neuroscience gig).
Anyways(TM-Nasfan), back to Charlie. If you recall, he had/has a very rare cancer - adrenocortical carcinoma - literally an incidence of 1 in a million. Five years ago - mebbe six - I've lost count. He had surgery to remove the "nerf football-sized" primary tumour above his right kidney and went on some fairly rough chemo (cisplatin + doxrubicin/daunorubicin + others) and then, many months later, his scans showed that he had three large mets in his lungs AND a regrowth of the tumour on his right kidney (they OUGHT to have removed that kidney when they resected the primary tumour! - that was a surgeon's mistake). He then underwent radiation therapy to shrink/stabilize the lung mets which have reduced his breathing capacity and he was put on mitotane. The mitotane held the mets and suprarenal regrowth tumour for a cupla years, then they began growing again as seen on his quarterly scans (which were only of his chest and abdomen). He was then taken off mitotane and put on CABOMETYX® (cabozantinib) which is a newische checkpoint inhibitor approved for liver and kidney cancer butt nott approved for adreocortical carcinoma as there are just nott enough patients with that rare cancer type for a suitably-powered clinical trial for that cancer type. Charlie's insurance refused to pay for this very expensive new drug as it is not an approved indication for cabozantinib, but the biopharma company has given him the drug gratis for the past three years after his insurance denies his claim every year; this is extremely common for biopharma/pharma to do especially in serious diseases like cancer, cystic fibrosis, and rare/orphan diseases.
All had been going well with his scans showing no to barely measurable met and recurrent primary site tumour growth. In July 2024, Charlie passed ~OUTT at home with no prior symptoms - he just went unconscious. His son, home for the summer from his U, found Charlie and had Charlie's wife call 911. The EMTs found failing vital signs - low BP, thready pulse, unable to arouse him to consciousness even briefly, low O2 saturation, low and laboured respiration). The local hospital in Logan, UT told his wife that the situation was very bleak. They did a head CAT scan, which showed a tennis-ball-sized mass in his brain above his right ear - then they life-flighted him by helicopter to the U of Utah medical skool hospital. The neurosurgeon normally would order a head MRI prior to surgery, butt she deemed there was no time - Charlie was on the verge of das Ende. His intracranial pressure was sky high and this was pushing his brainstem down thru the foramen magnum (the hole at the base of the skull thru which the spinal cord attaches to the brainstem, which regulates breathing, heart rate, BP- a lot of the shit that you need to stay alive). So the neurosurgeon took him directly to the OR and, after his head was screwed into a bunch of vices to immobilize it, she cut a 4-inch hole in his skull which, per her words, resulted in a big efflux of fluid and extrusion of his brain thru the 4-inch hole. Fortunately, the tennis-ball-sized brain met was (1) right where she cut the hole, (2) a distinct color and cellular texture compared to brain matter, and (3) was mostly walled off (encapsulated) and nott significantly intertwined into his brain substance, unlike, for example, gliomas and astrocytomas. She was able to remove it fairly straightforwardly. She reattached the 4-inch circle of cranium and stitched him up.
He remained comatose for a day or two, and then awakened. However, he had lost much of his memory - weirdly he could not remember his kids birthdays but he knew that his daughter was older than his son and stuph like that. He could nott move his legs. Gradually, over the next week, his memory improved and he was able to be put in a harness for physical therapy to learn to walk again. He was able to play cards with the occupational and physical therapists. His brain slowly began to get back to normal. He was transferred to the Nielsen rehab center across the street where he spent another week relearning how to walk. Charlie says the Nielsen rehab center was as nice or better than a top Marriott hotel - it was funded by the family of Craig Nielsen, a pretty rich guy that died, I think, from a car accident butt lived long enuff post-accident that he went thru some rehab and when he hit DaPineBoxx his fambly was so grateful they endowed the construction of the Nielsen Rehab Center. Charlie said the food was ~OUTTstanding - the menu he could pick from had salmon and steak, and all kinds of top quality food - he said he kinda didn't want to leave after his week there.
Then he spent a week at home before returning to Salt Lake for brain radiation at U.Utah hospital using the wonderous GammaKnife. He did brain radiation for a week and then went home. He kept improving mentalwise and physically as well, and he sounds entirely back to normal on the phone - memory and cognition and speech all seem as good as ever - and he walks just fine now.
Charlie and his wife both retired from USU on July 1, just a few weeks before his blackout and subsequent hospitalizations. Whilst in hospital for the brain surgery, he and his wife received a very attractive offer on their house, which they had just listed for sale at the end of June. Charlie was nott competent at that time to sign the closing paperwork, as it was a rush closing per the buyers' request, butt he had executed a power of attorney back in May granting his wife authority to sign the deed and transfer paper on his behalf and the docs provided affidavits that Charlie was non compos mentis so that, per the POA, his wife could sign on his behalf.
As soon as Charlie was finished with his GammaKnife radiation course and a little more recovery, he and his wife moved to North Carolina and stayed in AirBNBs whilst looking for homes. They finally found one they liked in Cornelius - nott on Lake Norman, butt their neighbors across the street are on the lake with a lakefront lott, and Charlie getts full rights (with 11 other homes) at an easement on the lake which has a common pier that the owners of the 12 properties can use and they can also put in their own piers at their own cost. He is now planning to buy a boat and when I visit him later, and if he has the boat, we will do some fishing on Lake Norman and, if he has a powerboat, I promised him I would try waterskiing again after about 40 years; as you may recall I grew up on a lake, whereupon I became a quite proficient skier - even able to use my large rabbitfoot-shaped feet to barefoot for short runs (like 150-200 yards) and was a very boffo slalomist.
Charles is back on the cabozantinib and also Keytruda (these are both wonder drugs!). His last scans showed that, for the first time ever, his lung mets and kidney recurrence have demonstrably shrunk. He just had a scan last Friday and meets with his new NC oncologist this week to go over the current results. So I'll prolly call him again in a few days to see how the latest scan went. Charlie is a dude with a very positive ~OUTTlook - I have never seen him depressed at all and he says he is nott at all depressed despite his rocky, scarily-close-to-lights-~OUTT summer/autumn. He just takes every day as it comes. As he said "everyday when I wake up, my first thought is that I'm still breathing so it's gonna be a great day".
He says one of the things he really enjoys about his new NC home is when he gets up in the morning, he gets his coffee and sits on the back porch and watches two pair of cardinals that frequent their numerous bird feeders. Unlike cold, dry winters at 6500 feet elevation in Utah, his NC weather yesterday was 70 degrees - which is mighty fine by him.
Parenthetically, Charlie's wife had breast cancer and a double mastectomy about 3 years ago and she remains on a lower-intensity chemo/biological therapy after going thru the fully Monte chemo for a bit over a year. So they both know that they are playing in "extra time" and are content to stay within their physical limitations. Charlie had a breast tumor (ductal carcinoma) removed from his right breast when he was in his 20's (males DO get breast cancer, just much less frequently than females) and numerous large colon polyps removed during a colonoscopy in his early 50's - so he seems a bit cancer-prone, having had three separate primary tumors (his colon polyps were scored as borderline malignant based on histopath) of different tissue types. This may be related to his time at Lunatic Labs; every single faculty member (except two) and administrative staff at Lunatic Labs that has died - has died from a cancer.
Welp, there is the Charlie update. I thought it was inneresting and that some of you might take some knowledge from his experience so far, as statistically a non-negligible fraction of you will face cancer at some point in your remaining game time - either cancer in yourself and/or a loved one. Charlie is now 5 years ~OUTT from his diagnosis and first surgery to remove that adrenal gland primary. Overall, his quality of life is nott so badd, butt for the large lung mets and lung scarring from his lung-directed radiation treatments which really limit his physical stamina to shortische walks and, what he misses most, his golf and downhill skiing. He used to be a near-scratch golfer and now, even with a cart, finds golf too exhausting for even 9 holes. Butt he is happy watching the cardinals while drinking coffee in his new backyard in the mornings.
His story also shows how in some cases one can make a very unexpected "full" recovery from strokes and brain injury/ischemia. A tennis-ball-sized brain tumour and high CSF brain pressure leading to hypoxia and brain stem compression - basically left him cognitively and motorwise back to his old normal functioning, after some time and physical/mental therapy. So don't lose hope; the human body is able to take one hell of a beating and keep on going - butt is is also vulnerable to severe damage and death from very minor things - it is just nott as predictable (good or badd) as many people believe. There is wide variability.
They'll trade in millionths of a Nickle.
..
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It's literally a cash grab. Commodity wise. Good time to buy futures in such...maybe lol. Early 80's and older.
Oh damn! I guess so. The price the plungers will have to pay.
Are we going to have to start calling them "Nickel Stocks"?
Oh yeah. An anti-gravity device made of motorcycle wheels. Say no more! I'm IN!!
It really is a fascinating story. I wonder how I and everyone I knew missed it back in the late '90s. Of course, by now the cast of characters is very large. And includes Wes Clark, who'd been involved in more than one stock scam in the past 20 or so years. Many more than just one:
This 4-star general now spends his days as the face of failing penny-stock companies
..Two of the more interesting ventures that Clark has been involved with include recruiting military veterans to a grilled cheese food-truck franchise and helping a convicted felon (Clark said "he seemed honest and legitimate in this business") to raise money to grow lettuce.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/4-star-general-now-spends-140549113.html
And of course it's entirely unsurprising that Nancy Mace plays or played a role. This one's got EVERYTHING!!
That was probably a good time to give up the pennies. The OTC market is by now pretty much dead. As you probably know, in 2021 compliance with the SEC's amendments to Rule 15c2-11 became mandatory, and that was the end.
Good to hear from you!
Hi Janice, glad to see you're still alive and kicking at 76, saw you on the CMKX board, I gave up penny stock trading in 2015, take care
Should further kill off coin and stamp collecting which is profitable for governments. A great hobby for kids to learn about art, geography, design and culture.
I agree. I wasn't all that interested in coins, but I really enjoyed collecting stamps. That was back in the '50s, so I learned a lot about the (mostly former) British colonies, the British Commonwealth, and all the new countries that were created by the end of colonialism, (At least the kind we were used to until the end of WWII.)
And of course that led to looking up their history and geography, and, then their culture. Come to think of it, kids should do more of that stuff today.
Stamp collecting is pretty defunct.
Sadly, that doesn't surprise me. I'll bet there're literally millions of schoolchildren who have no idea what stamps are for, and have never used one. Many are clueless when asked to address an envelope. I saw a very funny segment about that on a news show, featuring bewildered college students...
The value of my penny hoard just went up. Next up the nickel.
Making change will become a mess for those who use cash when shopping. I think there aren't a whole lotta nickels in circulation.
might be only smart decision he has made
I agree. I would have expected him to resist strongly if a Dem had suggested it. I wonder who did give him the idea.
that is a problem
I need a cart when I play as we have no beer cart.
This is a very entertaining read. It has a little of everything we know about investment scams, with UFO's and high level government officials, both real and imagined (the real Wesley Clark, and fake Steven Mnuchin and Antony Blinken) mixed in.
Believing in Aliens Derailed This Internet Pioneer’s Career. Now He’s Facing Prison
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-02-05/aliens-derailed-this-silicon-valley-exec-s-career-now-he-s-facing-prison
LOL. My son was into Matchbox cars. Dot.com the glory days for CSCO and RFMD to name a few.
The MAG 7 looks like another repeat.
Lindsey Vonn had a total knee replacement and is back skiing on the World Cup.
https://www.newser.com/article/578432cc8d2aa0b434952bf140bb0ef7/lindsey-vonn-hit-pause-on-her-life-to-set-a-new-standard-of-whats-possible-back-on-the-ski-slopes.html
I need a cart when I play as we have no beer cart.
Though the US Mint loses money on the penny and the nickel; they clean up on the dime and quarter since there is no silver in them today.
Most of the coins I collected are pre 1965 which was when they switched to a clad coin for them.
My son collected all the 50 state quarters into a fold out of the United States. Each state had something notable on the reverse side.
My dad collected the steel pennies during the war and had an extensive stamp collection from all over the world.
Obviously stamp and coin collecting is a hobby that is educational and at times extremely valuable.
I gave my boys their first investing lesson around 1998 when wife briefly hoarded Star Wars toys which she was convinced would become valuable. Today they are moldy and worthless in our basement as I predicted back then. Many went into our trash long ago when wife wasn't looking.
1998 was also around the peak of Dot Com insanity.