This is HILARIOUS! It seems that Berniece Van Der Berg, the Co-Founder – Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Moonlight Meadery has a problem. She has brought us upon herself.
Related: The Co-Founder of the Moonlight Meadery in Londonderry, Doesn’t Want Your Business.
She did not think too kindly of Steve’s post about her little rant and has threatened to seek legal recourse – wait for it – for “criminal threatening.” That seems to fit the mantra of Progressives that have become increasingly truer by the hour: “Our speech is fine – YOUR’S is violence.”
—– Forwarded Message —–
From:vanderberg@moonlightmeadery.com <vanderberg@moonlightmeadery.com>
To: “steve@granitegrok.com” <steve@granitegrok.com>; “stev@granitegrok.com” <stev@granitegrok.com>
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020, 12:17:05 PM EDT
Subject: Cease and DesistIt is confounding that you state on your blog post that the drivel you write is not a reflection of what the company or advertisers believe in but yet you dare to publicize an inaccurate and false statement without even reaching out for comment.
Stev? Stev? Stev? Cease and Desist? Cease and Desist? Oh BOY!
Emphasis mine and reformatted:
It is confounding that you state on your blog post that the drivel you write is not a reflection of what the company or advertisers believe in but yet you dare to…
Actually, it is a reflection- I’m perfectly fine with what he said – Free Speech, baby! And our customers readers are okay with it as well. Our advertisers probably don’t care either. They know who we are, and they know what we say on any given topic. That said, she has NO idea about GraniteGrok is about and if she had taken time to read our FAQs…
<snip>
Look in the Contact Us to email us. Anything you send us is fair game for us and we may use it on the site. Exceptions to this policy are only if you ask us not to; however, if we judge the email to be nasty, we still may post it and skewer it and its (lack of) critical thinking. Since we have lives outside of the blogosphere and are married to other people and not this blog, emails may go unanswered. This will be especially true if we become roaring successes and get millions of hits a day. Otherwise, we will make a good-faith effort to respond to some/many/most emails.
…she probably wouldn’t have written that email.
After all, we don’t have to make up stuff to put it into the mouths of those with whom we disagree. Like Berniece Van Der Berg, they just say it without us having to do a thing. In fact, we WANT Progressives to talk, talk, and talk even more. Like what Berniece said on her very PUBLIC Facebook page (that Steve shared):
The part that was of great interest to us was not the back and forth (fifth? sixth?) between Berniece Van Der Berg and who she fired but the:
“…if you support a racist Republican party or worse Trump, your money is no good to me.”
But back to the email:
…an inaccurate and false statement without even reaching out for comment
Well, it isn’t inaccurate, it’s a direct quote of what you typed. It can’t be false because we didn’t force you to type it – that was a voluntary act on your part! And the “without even reaching out for comment” tells us that you’re just mad and angry that you got caught saying bad things. WHY would we want to reach out?
Oh WAIT! I did – I left a comment on the Moonlight Meadery Facebook page. When I went back to day to see if they responded, I perceived that they didn’t like the question – my comment was deleted.
Imagine, though – The VP of Sales and Marketing of Moonlight Meadery just called half of her potential customers racists! Hey, Berniece, can you back that up? Do you have proof that fully 1/3 to 1/2 of the voters are racists? Back to that in a sec.
That statement was meant for a disgruntled ex-employee with a grudge to bare that had been trolling my private Facebook page
The “bare” part is just a gimme – we do it all the time. As to your “private Facebook page,” I think not. Unless you have made your Facebook page private (and when I looked two days ago, it wasn’t private), everything is game.
You want to have a back and forth in public with a “disgruntled ex-employee,” be our guest. Not exactly our way of handling HR problems, but hey, as Co-Founder of the company, you get to make the rules. We’ll just step back and watch with everyone else, including the folks who sent us your remarks.
Note, too, that a FB page ISN’T private (even yours) unless you make it so – and you hadn’t at the time of your post and when I looked and wasn’t when the original post was written. And your page STILL isn’t private. However, you did change it, didn’t you?
Look at the first post – 10 hours ago. Then look at the second one – 5 years ago. It looks like Berneice has recently wiped Facebook clean – including the screenshot Steve shared and all the rants I saw (in which Gracie Gato had responded along with others).
Back to the email:
You are formerly been told to cease and desist writing about the company in manner, shape or form. My personal views are that, my own, they do not have anything to do with the company. You will be charged with criminal threatening.
Cease and Desist. No more speech about Moonlight Meadery. Well, then, shall we make sport of her claim due to two other documents?
First Amendment of the US Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
NH Constitution:
[Art.] 22. [Free Speech; Liberty of the Press.] Free speech and Liberty of the press are essential to the security of Freedom in a State: They ought, therefore, to be inviolably preserved.
[Art.] 30. [Freedom of Speech.] The freedom of deliberation, speech, and debate, in either House of the Legislature, is so essential to the rights of the people, that it cannot be the foundation of any action, complaint, or prosecution, in any other court or place whatsoever.
It seems clear that the above philosophy escapes her. Entirely. Without any thought whatsoever. Threatening to bring government forces to bear against the publication and generalized opinion regarding words she publicly expressed in a broad political context. Words expressing how she thought we were all racists and didn’t want our money. Not Free Speech.
Yet another Progressive that hates Free Speech – especially when she gets caught using HER Right to Free Speech. Tsk, tsk, tsk, ma’am!
And then she doubled down:
If you persist in your hateful rhetoric and criminal threatening, I shall have no recourse but to follow legal action. Consider yourselves duly notified.
Berniece Van Der Berg
Co-Founder / Vice President Sales & Marketing
Moonlight Meadery / Hidden Moon Brewing – Mead / Cider / Braggots
2019 Mead & Cider Best of Show – San Diego International Beer Festival
23 Londonderry Rd, #17, Londonderry, NH 03053
Office: 603.216.2162 Cell: 603.421.4469
Hateful? Sorry, there is no actual “Hate Speech” in Law because it is so subjective. Nor was it “hateful” in any way shape or form. Logical conclusions from your own words and our coverage of covering what progressives have said over time. And as far as criminal threatening is concerned – just like the Hearst “First Amendment Fellow” lawyer that sent us a Cease and Desist letter years ago, you need to PROVE IT.
We commented on your speech – we threatened no one. I’m betting that anyone NOT a Progressive (and perhaps a lot of Progressives would) would agree. Laughable (as in LOL) that you’d consider it as such, but what about all those Republicans who YOU JUST CALLED RACISTS? Betcha they ain’t laughing.
Which is the point – you called them a hateful word. Not us – you said it. Only worse name to call someone is a pedophile. If you had used that word, you’d be talking to a bunch of other lawyers – just not your own. My last comment (for now) is about this snippet:
My personal views are that, my own, they do not have anything to do with the company.
Actually, they have EVERYTHING to do with your company – you FIRED someone from your company. You conversed back and forth with that person in a public space. You ARE the Face of the company being a co-founder and VP of Sales and Marketing. You announced that if you support the Republican party of Trump, their money is no good to you. No good for what? Well, an exchange for products or services with your company.
That they are your “personal views” is not a magic dismissal of their meaning – and you made them quite public.
Until you wiped them, yeah, you just made the evidence go away. Any lawyer that is above just taking your money should tell you that you screwed up by making it public then deleting it.
Just remember one thing, we have lawyers, too, and they WRITE for GraniteGrok.com.
