>>19972147 Nevada judicial corruption: Washoe County, and the stunning disregard shown by the judge (Russell).PN

They are all corrupt!

Gilbert’s election lawsuit dismissed by Carson judge

By Geoff DornanAug. 11, 2022

Carson District Judge James Wilson on Wednesday dismissed Joey Gilbert’s lawsuit challenging the results of the Republican gubernatorial primary.

In that contest, Gilbert lost to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo by 11 percentage points — more than 25,000 votes.

Gilbert refused to concede and demanded a recount, saying he actually won the primary by some 50,000 votes.

A recount by all 17 Nevada county election officials confirmed the loss but Gilbert took the matter to court, still arguing that he won but was denied his victory by election fraud.

Wilson disagreed and, on Wednesday, granted the motion seeking summary judgment. He dismissed the case as lacking competent evidence to support the allegations of fraud.

A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office said Gilbert is expected to appeal the dismissal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Gilbert, a Reno attorney, campaigned on false claims the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. He said he challenged the June 14 primary results to protect the integrity of the elections in Nevada.

Former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, who also lost to Lombardo in the primary, has called on Gilbert to drop his lawsuits and unite behind Lombardo’s effort to make Democrat Steve Sisolak a one-term governor.

Gilbert has not responded to a request for comment on the ruling.

https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2022/aug/11/gilberts-election-lawsuit-dismissed-carson-judge/

>>19972147 Nevada judicial corruption: Washoe County, and the stunning disregard shown by the judge (Russell). PN They are all corrupt!

Washoe DA concerned about public harassment of elected officials

By Ray HagarAugust 22, 2023

Local government bodies across the nation have increasinglyfaced vocal and aggressive opposition from right-wing groups since the 2020 election, according to published reports.

That unrest and ire has made its way to Washoe County, making the issue of threats and violence against public officials all too real for Chris Hicks, the Washoe County district attorney.

Hicks' increased awareness comes as the Washoe County Commission has been facing “paid and organized” disruptors at its public meetings, said Commission Chair Alexis Hill. They want to cause chaos and put fear into commissioners, Hill added.

“We're seeing kind of an uptick in those kind of threats,” Hicks recently told host Sam Shad on Nevada Newsmakers. “So, yes, I have an overall concern for public officials.”

Hicks knows first-hand about threats. A Sun Valley man was recently sentenced to five years in prison for making graphic threats on a podcast against Hicks and Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam.

Nicholas Vietti, on his podcast “Battle Born Marine,” used explicit language, saying he would murder Hicks and sell his wife into sexual slavery with a drug cartel, according to court records.

“I do worry about individuals who have radical views or who are fixated on public officials, maybe frankly, because of information that's out there that's not even accurate,” he said.

Vietti, who was sentenced in June,had ill feelings toward Balaam and Hicks since 2015, blaming them for the results of a child-support case, according to reports.

Hicks, in his role as district attorney, is now dealing with another case about attacks on public officials.

Robert Beadles, a member of the Washoe County Republican Central Committee and a major donor to various conservative candidates and causes, filed alawsuit in state court to remove the county's registrar of voters, county manager and chairwoman of the Washoe commission.

Beadles, a reportedly wealthy transplant from California, also wants the court to address his election grievances that include voter registration lists, vote counting and signature verification, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.

Hicks' office is defending the county officials.

The harassment and/or legal action against the Washoe officials is part of an ongoing national issue, according to various reports. Local officials in 44 counties in 15 states have faced efforts to change rules on voting since the 2020 election, according to Reuters news service.

All of them were led by Trump loyalists or Republican Party activists driven by false voter-fraud theories, Reuters reported.

Washoe's former registrar resigned in June after facing harassment over recent elections. Reuters reported that 10 of the top election officials in Nevada's 17 counties have resigned, retired or not sought re-election since the 2020 election, called “rigged” by former President Donald Trump.

Hicks said he was limited in what he could say about the lawsuit that Beadles brought against the county officials, adding, “We'll represent them diligently and zealously, especially when we don't we think it is a lawsuit that is righteous in any way.”

—Hicks discounted claims of election fraud in Washoe County__.

“You know, I have not seen anything that would suggest to me there was fraud,” he said. “I believe no election system is perfect. I think the county is doing a good job of self-examination to make sure that they're always improving. But I have not seen anything that would suggest there was mass fraud.”

He also dismissed the call by some activists to return to paper ballots.

However, one Nevada county, Nye County, saw its commissioners OK a return to paper ballots in 2022. The rural county has less than 35,000 voters.

"I think that's ripe for error and it's taking a step back," Hicks said about paper ballots. "I think we have innovative ways to move forward. I don't know what the future looks like for elections, but it sure seems to me that technology should be able to present some ways that you could do voter identification and voting digitally."

Hicks is open to consider a system of voter identification through photos, adding, "But overall, we want an efficient and fair process. That's what everybody wants. And I think that that's what we're doing in Washoe County."

https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2023/aug/22/washoe-da-concerned-about-public-harassment-of-elected-officials/

Moderna is spying on you

New documents reveal its attempts to control the vaccine debate.1/3. Nob. 20, 2023

Novak Djokovic’s victorious return to the US Open this year was heralded as the triumph of an “ageless” athlete. His “greatness”, The Guardian reported, “has been defined by his ability to rise from difficult losses stronger than before”. But for the pharmaceutical giant Moderna, it came as something of a blow.

“Djokovic Crowned Anti-vaccine Hero after US Open Win,” howled the title of an internal report. It continued: “The optics of Djokovic, whose vaccine opposition barred him from competing in the 2022 US Open, returning to and winning the Moderna-sponsored competition bolsters anti-vaccine claims that vaccines — and mandates — are unnecessary.”

The report rated news surrounding Djokovic as “high-risk”, noting that “vaccine opponents are celebrating” the tennis champion and that some on social media “mockingly point out that Moderna is a US Open sponsor”. Other alerts, produced by a partnership blending marketing executives with former FBI and Secret Service analysts, also cited concerns around drug industry profits as a source of misinformation.

Far from viral deception, much of the content flagged by Moderna as “misinformation” and a supposed danger to public health was nothing of the sort, it was legitimate discussion of vaccine-related issues. But the Moderna misinformation reports, reported here for the first time, reveal what the pharmaceutical company is willing to do to shape public discourse around its marquee product. And, even affect policy-making.

Moderna did incredibly well out of the pandemic. It was shot from a fledgling biotech firm to a household name, having created one of the most effective vaccines during the outbreak. The mRNA Covid-19 vaccine catapulted the company to a $100 billion valuation and minted five new billionaires, including the chief executive, Stéphane Bancel, its chairman, Noubar Afeyan, co-founder Robert Langer, president Stephen Hoge, and Timothy Springer, a Harvard Medical School professor and early investor.

But as demand for its vaccinations has diminished, inevitably, so too have its earnings. This year, its only marketable product lies unused and the company has recorded steep losses. Moderna has also been forced to pay royalty payments to NIAID, the US government agency that helped produce the basic research that underpins the mRNA vaccine technology. As a result, in January, Bancel announced a price hike of up to $130 a dose, far higher than the $15-26 for American federal contracts, according to the Wall Street Journal. “We’re expecting a 90% reduction in demand,” Bancel said, when he was asked to defend the decision. “As you can see, we’re losing economies of scale.”

With its profits evaporating, Moderna embarked on a flashy new marketing campaign that features a child chasing a red string that transforms into a ribbon, which the narrator explains is an mRNA strand that could unlock cures for all types of diseases. And its latest television advert depicts the company’s coronavirus vaccine as emblematic of a healthy lifestyle. Over some cool music, the narrator says, “make vaccination against Covid-19 a part of your health routine: Spikevax that body”.

The most important thing for Moderna is that people keep having their jabs. Smart ads are part of that. But more important is to push back aggressively against any prevailing anti-vax narrative and engage where possible in any discussions around vaccine policy. That’s where the Moderna disinformation department comes in.

Behind the scenes, the marketing arm of the company has been working with former law enforcement officials and public health officials to monitor and influence vaccine policy.Key to this is a drug industry-funded NGO called Public Good Projects. According to documents we have seen, PGP works closely with social media platforms, government agencies and news websites to confront the “root cause of vaccine hesitancy” by rapidly identifying and “shutting down misinformation”. Anetwork of 45,000 healthcare professionals are given talking points“and advice on how to respond when vaccine misinformation goes mainstream”, according to an email from Moderna.

Moderna’s disinformation arm is perpetuating the public discourse wars that have been raging since early in the pandemic, aimed at shutting down anything that might undermine Covid-19-related policies, including lockdowns and efforts to encourage mass vaccinations. These documents provide a new window into the process that has roiled speech debates over the last three years…

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With PGP, Moderna is monitoring a huge range of mainstream outlets, as well as unconventional ones, such as the Steam online gaming community and Medium. Meanwhile, Moderna alsoretains Talkwalker which uses its “Blue Silk” artificial intelligenceto monitor vaccine-related conversations across 150 million websites in nearly 200 countries. Discussions around “competitor” issues, including discussions of Pfizer are flagged as well as vaccine hesitancy.

Theirmonitoring teamincludes Moderna’s global intelligence division, which isrun by Nikki Rutman,who spent nearly20 yearsas an analyst with theFederal Bureau of Investigation=. Rutman was working from the FBI’s Boston office during the COVID-19 effort known as “Operation Warp Speed”, which involved the FBI conducting weekly cybersecurity meetings with the Boston headquartered Moderna. She is among many former law enforcement agents now with the vaccine maker. The involvement of former law enforcement reflects a wider trend in the misinformation-space, as the Department of Homeland Security and FBI have increasingly leaned on social media platforms to shape content decisions as a national security issue.

The reports issued by the department, which are circulated around staff, include colour-coded warnings about the severity of various anti-vaccine narratives. The high and medium alerts include explanations of the news source and why it matters, followed by a listing of “low-risk narratives we are monitoring” that “don’t currently warrant any action”. If and when a response is needed, “our team will notify the appropriate stakeholders with recommendations”.

According to one report we have seen, Musk is deemed to be “high risk”. Specifically, a Musk videothat ridiculed media and government officials who claimed the Covid-19 vaccine was “100% effective” against the virus. The report did not identify any false statements, but warned that his video highlighted the fact that “deception by health authorities and health care providers during the pandemic” would “lay the groundwork to sow distrust in credible sources on vaccine safety and effectiveness”.

Another high profile critic of Big Pharma featured in a Moderna report is Russell Brand. In September, he was flagged because some on social media suspect that he has been targeted for his “anti-vaccine beliefs”.

The report featured a video of Brand decrying pharmaceutical profits and making the claim that Moderna and Pfizer made “$1,000 of profit every second” from the pandemic. The claim is bundled into a “high-risk” alert that warns Brand’s views are “circulated in anti-vaccine spaces where he is viewed as a truth-teller and threat to authority”. Moderna further notes that Brand received support from “high-profile” figures such as Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson.

None of the reports that we have seen makes any attempt to dispute the claims made. Rather the claims areautomatically deemed “misinformation” if they encourage vaccine hesitancy. We approached Moderna for comment, but they didn’t respond.

“What often flies under the banner of combating disinformation is, in this case,nothing but corporate public relations, trying to spin public narratives in directions favorable to the corporation’s interests,” said Aaron Kheriaty, a bioethicist, and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “Does anyone really want to live under a regime where their social media feed is essentially curated by government or by multinational corporate interests that stand to profit, influencing opinion on these issues?”

This is where the line between PR and lobbying gets blurred for Moderna. It’s all very well for a company to be information gathering, and attempting to send out a positive message. But it’s quite another for it to be using that information for more problematic purposes. Of particular interest in this respect is PGP — the company at the heart of Moderna’s misinformation department.

Financed through a $1,275,000 donation from the Biotechnology and Innovation Organization, lobbyists representing Pfizer and Moderna, PGPmaintains close ties to government and media. Moderna first worked closely with PGP on a programme called “Stronger” in 2021-22 in which it identified misinformation and shaped content decisions on social media. PGP was particularly well-equipped to help with this since it had backdoor access to Twitter data, known as the “firehose”, and helped Twitter formulate its pandemic-related speech policies.

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We have discovered, through internal emails from Twitter, that PGP’s misinformation reporting team was frequently in contact withTodd O’Boyle, a lobbyist at Twitter, and sent him periodic Excel sheets with accounts to amplify or censor. Their intention, as we have gleaned from the emails exchanged, was not only to combat misinformation, but also to affect the content and tenor of public debate. While PGP identified some obvious falsehoods, such as claims that the vaccines contained microchips or were devised intentionally to kill patients, many tweets flagged as misinformation were simply critical of vaccine passports and other policies designed to coerce vaccination.

The relationship may have extended into the law enforcement space. Last year,Vijaya Gadde, then serving as Twitter’s general counsel, advised the Department of Homeland Security’s task force on combating misinformation on trusted fact-checking organisations. In an email to her colleagues, reported here for the first time, Gadde recommended that the government meet with PGP to decipher Covid-19 speech issues.

Moderna’s corporate intelligence and marketing team has worked closely with PGP again this year in its bid to shape the vaccine discourse as take-up drops off a cliff. The partnershipexpanded again in October with an official training programme, developed by Moderna and PGP, alongside theAmerican Board of Internal Medicine, to help healthcare workers identify medical misinformation. The online course, called the “Infodemic Training Program”, represents an official partnership between biopharma and the NGO world. Butnone of PGP’s recent workwith Modernais disclosedon its website or in the Infodemic Training Program. PGP did not respond to requests for comment.

As thepandemic abates, Modernais, if anything,ratcheting up its surveillance operation, with a keen interest in anything relating to policies designed tocoerce vaccination. In particular, the company is closely tracking elected officials and recently passed laws in Arkansas and Texas which restricted vaccine mandates.

“Politicians attempting to ban COVID-19 mandates — or at least claiming to — signals growing resistance to COVID-19 mitigations,” reads one of the Moderna alerts. Given the company avoided publicly commenting on the mandate debate, this is revelatory.

This attitude is borne out in a report from October 5, which flags an Elon Musk message on X that elaborates on the billionaire’s opposition to mandates. Musk expressed outrage at the “demand that people must take the vaccine and multiple boosters,” adding that, until the courts overturned the Biden employer mandate, “SpaceX and many other companies would have been forced to fire anyone who refused to get vaccinated.”

The report notes: “Musk has one of the largest platforms in the world—literally and figuratively. He increasingly uses that platform to elevate fringe vaccine opponents and conspiracy theorists.”

But despite the growing backlash against social media censorship, thenetwork of fact-checking nonprofits has grown at an industrial pace, providing opaque opportunities for private and public interests to take subtle control over the public discourse. Such sophistication in blending public-health messaging and corporate advertising should concern anyone with an interest in how government controls free speech.

“This is an interesting peek behind the disinformation industry, what it actually does,” said Kheriaty, the bioethicist. ”It’s about controlling a narrative, controlling the flow of information, controlling how people think about public policy, like the vaccine mandate, and how people think about a particular product that a corporation is profiting from,” he added. “It’s deeply disturbing.”

Lee Fang is an investigative journalist and Contributing Editor at UnHerd. Read his Substack here.

November 20, 2023

Jack Poulson is a journalist and author of All-Source Intelligence Fus

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