DL Open Thread: Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Has Absolute Corruption Been Normalized Now?:

The Trumps are hardly the first presidential family to profit from their time in power, but they have done more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House. The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking. The Trump family and its business partners have collected $320 million in fees from a new cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars and are opening an exclusive club in Washington called the Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone.

Just last week, Qatar handed over a luxury jet meant for Mr. Trump’s use not just in his official capacity but also for his presidential library after he leaves office. Experts have valued the plane, formally donated to the Air Force, at $200 million, more than all of the foreign gifts bestowed on all previous American presidents combined.

And Mr. Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January. Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in — not to a campaign account but to a business that benefits Mr. Trump personally.

By conventional Washington standards, according to students of official graft, the still-young Trump administration is a candidate for the most brazen use of government office in American history, perhaps eclipsing even Teapot Dome, Watergate and other famous scandals.

‘Candidate’, my not-insubstantial butt.  By far, the most corrupt Presidential administration ever.  Neither the public nor, for that matter, most of the press, seem to care.

Who Taught AI How To Lie?  OK, when I was in 10th Grade, I wrote a book report about a book I made up–‘the Watchmaker’ by Pierre Sorbeille. (If I could do it again, his name would be Sorbet.  Sample snippet: “But doctor, without my hands, I am–nothing.”)  About a Swiss watchmaker who gets his hands ground up in the gears of a timepiece.  (Didn’t say it was a classic, but no such book existed, nor should it have.)  We now have your suggested reading list for the summer.  Just one problem:

Almost all the books were fake. There is no Nightshade Market by Min Jin Lee, Boiling Point by Rebecca Makkai, The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir, or The Rainmakers by Percival Everett, among other invented titles. The article was not only generated by ChatGPT (or similar program), but clearly unedited. No one at the Chicago Sun-Times even bothered a cursory check. And not only the Sun-Times. The article, along with other seemingly AI-generated pieces, were syndicated in multiple newspapers across the country including the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Not something you’d expect from (at one time) hallowed pillars of journalism.  Now, the State of Alabama might be a whole ‘nother thing entirely:

In less than a year and a half, Frankie Johnson, a man incarcerated at the William E Donaldson prison outside Birmingham, Alabama, says he was stabbed around 20 times.

In 2021, Johnson filed a lawsuit against Alabama prison officials for failing to keep him safe, rampant violence, understaffing, overcrowding and pervasive corruption in Alabama prisons. To defend the case, the Alabama attorney general’s office turned to a law firm that for years has been paid millions of dollars by the state to defend its troubled prison system: Butler Snow.

State officials have praised Butler Snow for its experience in defending prison cases – and specifically William Lunsford, head of the constitutional and civil rights litigation practice group at the firm. But now the firm is facing sanctions by the federal judge overseeing Johnson’s case after an attorney at the firm, working with Lunsford, cited cases generated by artificial intelligence – which turned out not to exist.

It is one of a growing number of instances in which attorneys around the country have faced consequences for including false, AI-generated information in official legal filings. A database attempting to track the prevalence of the cases has identified 106 instances around the globe in which courts have found “AI hallucinations” in court documents.

‘AI hallucinations’.  Look like flat-out lies to me.  Serious question for anybody who knows anything about AI:  How does that happen?

More Delaware Pharmacies Closing.  Here’s why:

For her part, Ms. Robbins placed much of the blame for Rite Aid’s demise on pharmacy benefit managers, or companies that administer prescription drug benefits on behalf of health insurers, employers and other health care payers.

Such entities “have been notoriously underpaying us,” she said. “We are the only country in the world that has PBMs.”

The Delaware Pharmacy Society, which represents about 800 pharmacists living and working in Delaware, is partnering with the state Board of Pharmacy to craft an executive order the groups hope Gov. Matt Meyer will sign. It would permit prescriptions to be transferred between certified technicians, as opposed to just pharmacists, as currently is the case, Ms. Robbins said.

The order would also enable pharmacists from other states to relieve the crunch here and permit customers to obtain 30-day emergency supplies of noncontrolled substances, she continued.

Spotlight Delaware Previews The Week.  Including the all-important Joint Finance Committee bill mark-up.  Man, I don’t know where Delaware journalism would be w/o Spotlight Delaware, WHYY, and First State Media.

What do you want to talk about?