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Sending a newsletter out on April 1 is always fraught. Today, everyone reads things twice, careful not to be taken in. I promise, tempted as I was, today’s newsletter contains none of that, but if you are looking for a nice April Fool’s piece, you might click over to today’s FB post.

March was a fun month, writing-wise. The podcast I did with Dylan Schlender on “Reels of Justice”, where I defended the movie “K19: Widowmaker,” is posted. You can listen to it here, and see if I won my case! Those guys are a hoot! I really hope they invite me back.

I gave a presentation on getting published to the writing club at my son’s school, Blue Ridge Community College. Really gratifying, and I think the students got a lot out of it too.  I had so much fun that it motivated me to suggest to the dean that I teach a class there on writing. She didn’t say no or yes but gave me the run-down: you don’t get rich teaching (surprise!), they pay $2100 to teach a 3-credit course. Looking into writing a syllabus and sending it to them.

This month I start teaching a second class at George Mason University on submarines at their Fairfax campus—the same class I taught at Reston in the winter, but better (I hope!). In that class I mentioned the General Belgrano sinking in 1982 and the Korean frigate sinking in 2020, the two post-war instances of a ship sunk by a submarine-launched torpedo, but in this class I will have a third one to add, the sinking of the Iranian frigate by USS Charlotte in this current war. Scary and frightful times we live in.

I have been thinking lately of Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery”. If you haven’t read it—spoilers ahead, and how on earth did you get through sophomore English class without doing so?

I got my first Amazon one-star review of “Hotwire.” The reviewer said it was “too political” and objected to the initial inciting scene where a rancher relates how his cook was detained by the Border Patrol for 8 hours, strip-searched, given several invasive cavity searches, force-fed a laxative, and MRI’d–only to be let go with no charges, but a bill for $5400 for the MRI and X-rays. The reviewer took issue, saying “The depiction of torture by the CBP agents” was “gratuitous” and “anecdotal”.

I am not sure what he meant by “anecdotal.” It is a true account, taken from the court testimony (she later sued), and was published in the 2018 edition of Harper’s Magazine.

Gratuitous? That term usually means it was included for inflammatory purposes to appeal solely to a prurient interest.  I used the scene because I needed a sufficiently alarming event for the protagonist to embark on what was essentially a life of crime, so (In my mind at least) it served a narrative, not prurient, purpose.

The reviewer’s reference to “torture” bothers me the most. In a way, it would be less horrifying if the agents had simply tortured that poor woman, but far from it: In their minds, what they did was perfectly justified and reasonable. Shoving a speculum into various orifices, strapping her down on a gurney, and force-feeding laxatives, irradiating her–all in a day’s work. Following “the law.”

That’s what made me think of “The Lottery”. The story is a window into hell brought about by law-abiding citizens  “following the rules”, just as the CBP agents were doing. It is a corporeal instantiation of “the banality of evil,” a full fifteen years before Hannah Arendt introduced that term into the lexicon.

I believe we are living in a modern-day version of “The Lottery”—not just with the current immigration fracas, but in the wars and death and injustice we allow to go around us as “the cost of doing business” and “following the law”.  If you haven’t read the story, I encourage you to do so, and if you have, read it again, and ask yourself which person you might be in it.

Speaking of stories and authors, I found another favorite: Tom Strelich, author of “Dog Logic” and “Water Memory”, and a third due this year, finishing the trilogy.  He writes with wit and a sense of the absurd that captivated me and made me more than slightly jealous.

That’s it for this month! Until the next, Peace.

Bentonville, Arkansas, April 1, 2026

Walmart Corporation (WMT, NASDAQ) announced the inauguration today of its new “Save Money. Live Healthy” initiative that promises to do for healthcare what it did for the retail industry—unleash the buying power of the world’s largest retailer to deliver health care at prices affordable to everyday working families.

“It was time,” said Walmart Healthcare spokesman Mark S. Wellbee. “Families have been pushed to the limit by rising healthcare costs, and we decided to step in and do what’s right.” He presented the remarks at the opening ceremony of the Health Kiosk at their flagship store in Bentonville, which they intend to roll out nationwide in the coming months.

“Medical care in America today is a rigged system,” said Mr. Wellbee. “You don’t know how much it will cost when you walk through a clinic’s doors, unlike any other service or product sold in the United States. You get billed months later by organizations you never heard of, demanding money. The bill, if you are even presented with one, is incomprehensible. And if you don’t pay, your debt is sent to bill collectors, who tack on more fees, fees you will never be able to pay.” Medical debt, said Mr. Wellbee, is the leading cause of bankruptcy in America.

“Part of the reason is the overhead,” he said. “I had a blood test last week at my local hospital. Five people were involved just to get the blood, let alone analyze it.  A security guard at the door, a person to check me into the hospital and issue me an adhesive name badge, then I walked three feet to another clerk who verified my insurance and gave me yet another name badge, this one a wristband, then I went to the blood station where a third clerk checked my wristband,  then I finally saw the phlebotomist. And don’t get me started about the backend administration involved—filling out the  billing codes, sending the bill to the insurance company, adjudicating it– it’s easily a dozen people involved in a procedure that takes us just one person to perform, here at Walmart Healthcare.” He shook his head ruefully.

The problem, said Mr. Wellbee, is insurance companies and the middlemen who serve it. “Obamacare took a stab at reining in costs, but failed because it didn’t solve the root of the problem- people making a living passing paper from one person to another in a system designed to provide them lifetime employment, while creating no value whatsoever. Obamacare just fed the beast.”

“We intend to fix that for healthcare, as we did for retail, by eliminating the middlemen and using our buying power to obtain goods and services at the best possible price. 80% of all medical care can be performed by a physician’s assistant, not an MD.  That’s from the Economist. We will start with outpatient care. 50 to 70% of all surgical procedures are performed on an outpatient basis. That’s our first market.”

“And you will know the cost when you walk in.” He pointed to the kiosk marquee above his head.  “That’s our introductory rate for stitches–$9.99 per stitch. Or, as we like to say, ‘A stitch in time costs nine-ninety-nine!’ No insurance involved. You pay with cash or a credit card. You know the cost straight up. No surprises months later. What you see is what you pay.”

Asked about the quality of care and Walmart’s reputation for middle-grade goods, Wellbee Bristled. “Sure, healthcare for the fifty percent in this country who have insurance from their employer is excellent. But what about the rest? This nation pays twice as much per capita for care as any other rich country, yet it has abysmal outcomes. We rank last in the OECD in infant mortality and longevity. Why? Because our system fails to serve the people who need it most, the working poor, those who live paycheck to paycheck. That is the target market of Walmart Healthcare.  The ones whose lives are shortened by not treating easily preventable conditions. The ignored and forgotten fifty percent.”

Asked about the expected pushback from insurers and state and local regulatory authorities, who many believe are in a conflict-of-interest calumny, Wellbee snorted. ”They can try. Walmart is the single largest private employer in the nation. That carries some clout.”

“Reels of Justice” is a movie review spodcast in the guise of “Law and Order” where a movie is “on trial” for being a bad movie! Dylan Schlender and the rest of them who run it are very funny! “K19: The Widowmaker”–a submarine movie based on a true event, an atomic mishap on a Soviet submarine, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, was on the docket this week, with me as the defending attorney. See how good a job I did and whether I got my client acquitted, lots of fun:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1154249/episodes/18793627

I try to get these newsletters out the first of the month. This is late because I was tied up with a sudden trip I had to make to Hawaii to bring my mother home. At 88, her cognitive acuity has diminished to the point she can’t live alone. Dementia is one of the most horrible conditions I can think of. If you have read my second book, “How to Hotwire an Airplane”, you know that one of its themes is “You are your memories.” When you lose your memories, you have lost yourself, even though the body might still be alive. Read “Flowers for Algernon”—I remember sobbing when I read that book, when the narrator starts his slow, inevitable slide into senescence.

But rest assured, she is now with my brother and near other family members and is doing very well and getting the care she needs! (Didn’t want to end this part on a downer!)

One tidbit about “Hotwire”–in it, I predicted the airspace in Texas would become a shambles, owing to the inability of the FAA and the military to communicate. Sadly, that came true when the FAA recently shut down the airspace over El Paso for ten days (later rescinded) A tiff with the DoD and DHS. (If you kids can’t agree, I’m gonna take everything away…)

February was a busy month! Finished teaching the class on submarines at George Mason University. It was truncated a bit due to a weather-related cancellation of one class, but I have good faith the next one I teach, at the Fairfax campus this spring, will not be so affected.

“Submerged” went into March still the Amazon #1 Bestseller in Navy Biographies so was a bestseller for 12 months,  but today was bumped to #3. It was a good run, though!

In Feb I was a guest on “Reels of Justice”, a hilarious movie review podcast created in the guise of “Law and Order” where a “prosecutor” and “Defense attorney” discuss the merits and demerits of a movie to determine whether it is “guilty” of being a bad movie. I defended “K19: Widowmaker”, a movie about a (true) atomic accident on a Soviet sub in 1961 that killed many of its crewmembers, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Did I win my case? You have to watch the episode when it comes out! (It has not yet, but here is their Facebook page Facebook

“Google Maps Handicap” is coming along. Slowly. I am on the fence about whether I need to, or shall, make a pseudonym for “Google”, I would hate to publish it and then be sued by them for defamation. That would be a stretch, but we live in a litigious country.

I will leave you with two authors I discovered this month:

“Elyse Douglas” is the pen name of a husband-wife team that writes time travel romances, which I am sucker for. I read “Time Change” but they are very prolific; tons of others. We shall see if they become repetitive.

Joe Barret writes like I do, or want to anyway. Funny, but with a social point wrapped inside the humor. Just finished “Unplugged”, which is about, among other things, the homeless, and now reading “Managed Care”, which is about other downtrodden, unnoticed people of America.

Strongly recommend reading those books (after mine, of course!)

Until next month,

Henry Rausch

Feb 1 and winter keeps us in its icy grip. The temperature remained in the single digits at night and barely drifted into the teens and twenties during the day, here in West Virginia.  A hardship to some, and not minimizing the trouble and pain the snowfall caused, but I find beauty and joy in winter’s harshness. Like a hurricane or a heatwave, Mother Nature’s way of reminding us who is in charge.

Up on the mountain yesterday, I found I wasn’t alone; it looks like Yogi woke from his nap midwinter and is searching for a pic-a-nic basket.  That’s me in the picture, looking down on a frozen lake that I was swimming in just six months ago! It is a wonder of nature, and a gift to us, I think, to see such changes with the seasons. Spring is promiscuous and fecund, Summer lazy and fat, Autumn harried and hurried with winter preparations and family holidays. Winter is none of that: unhurried, austere, serene, and supreme. Think you’re going somewhere today? Look out the window, think again. Best curl up with a good book, next to the fire (or fires, I use two stoves to stay warm, a coal stove and a wood-fueled one). Needless to say, my favorite season.

January was busy:

An interview with Gary David on his podcast “Experience by design”. I have found that no two podcast interviews are the same, each one asks different questions and brings us somewhere else. This one delved into many aspects of leadership and is more academic than others I have done.

Started teaching at George Mason University, an adult extension class about submarines. 47 students, all retired and interested in history. The final class will be on a war game the USNI conducted two years ago, “War with China 2026”. Needless to say, submarines feature prominently in it, and everyone expressed great interest in that class. I will teach it again at the Fairfax campus this spring, and I may take it on the road and teach it at other libraries and museums if I get sufficient interest.

This month marks the 11^th consecutive month that “Submerged” has been a bestseller on Amazon and shows no sign of slowing down! Thank you, everyone, who read it and reviewed it.

“Hotwire” sells about a book a day, not great but not awful. I keep hoping it will break out, but maybe it won’t.

I took a break from writing “Handicap” to study a book I picked up, which really changed my way of thinking about story structure, “Story Genius” by Lisa Cron. For all the writers out there, I can’t recommend it highly enough; it changed my way of thinking about plot.

I will leave you with an invite: On Feb 10 February at 8 PM EST, I will be defending the movie “K19: Widowmaker” (2002, Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson)  on the podcast “Reels of Justice”. Strongly urge anyone interested in movies to listen to a few of their shows; they “presume a movie innocent of being a bad movie,” and a prosecutor and a defender (that will be me) must make their case to a judge and jury. Great fun and also educational if you like movies.

Thank you, everyone, for reading. Until next month,

Henry Rausch, (K19 defense attorney)

Hi everyone, this is just a short note to say that I got some good news about my books.

“How to Hotwire an Airplane” was listed as a top twelve favorite for 2025 by Rosepoint Publishing! This is quite an achievement; if you look at the other authors in the list–Michael Connelly, Whoopi Goldberg, Dean Koontz, and Sara Gruen!

Here is the link: Twelve Favorite Books of 2025 – #Favoritebooks #eBooks #Audiobooks – Rosepoint Publishing

Also, I was interviewed on Gary David’s podcast last October, and it just hit. He is a professor of sociology at Bentley University, and we talked about different theories of leadership as it relates to my novels.

Here is the link: Submerged Experiences with Henry Rausch | Experience by Design

Enjoy! and, Peace.

Hi everyone and wishing all a happy New Year and pleasant memories of 2025.

Speaking of memory…

I have been thinking about memory a lot lately. Maybe, because I am at that stage of life where I have to tend to my mother’s affairs, who, at 87, has lost the ability to form long-term memories. It’s as if she has run out of tape and can’t record anything new. Every five minutes, the same questions that were asked and answered a dozen times. That affliction is very cruel. Her mind is sharp, and she can debate and speak about a subject at length, so I would hesitate to call it dementia—no hallucinations, no rabid, meandering speech, just the recorder button is inoperative. Exactly like that movie, Memento. In fact, I tell people there is nothing wrong with her that a stack of yellow stickies and a tattoo gun would not solve. That guy in Memento got along perfectly well without the ability to form memories. Well, except for the whole being used to commit murder thing. Other than that.

We are our memories. Everything you think you are, is a memory. So what happens to “you” when you lose it? Are you erased? Or is your memory, and that part of yourself,  inscribed in spacetime somewhere? I touched upon this subject in my second book, “Hotwire” and I am considering writing a new book that delves more deeply into it. Biology tells us that when we remember, we are remembering the most recent memory, which becomes a copy of a copy of a copy, and thus prone to errors. We all have had the experience, I am sure, of finding an old photo that absolutely proves the old Dodge Rambler was red while you positively remember it was blue.

What if we could take a drug that allowed us, not to remember, but experience exactly the same sensory perceptions you had when the original memory occurred, say, because those sensations are buried in your cells somewhere? It would kind of be like time travel, you could go back and experience a past event, but not affect it. I think there would be a lot of people—I call them “go-backers” who would spend the rest of their lives in those memories, in a coma, kept alive by a glucose drip.  And what a boon it would be for the legal profession? No more eyewitness testimony, take a pill and experience it for yourself.  Would that pill show us there is an inviolate objective, truth, or would it instead reveal there is none, that reality is created by the observer?

Memory, time, and consciousness all seem to be intertwined. We can posit a theoretical “now”, but the more we try to look for it, that slippery rascal eludes us! Because as I type “now” at a point in so-called “time”, it recedes into the past. To consider it, I rely on my “memory.” In fact, all my so-called “consciousness” is experienced via memory. Consciousness is not “real-time”. Does the act of visiting a memory create time and consciousness, or is the other way around?

And don’t get me started about the afterlife. If there is an ”afterlife with a “you” in it, then it must have our memories, because all we are is memories. One of the protagonists in “Hotwire” makes that point explicit: “Not even God can take away your memories, because if She did, “you” wouldn’t be “you.” So the old saw about not being able to take it with you is nonsense. You can’t bring a flat screen TV or a McMansion with you to the afterlife, but you can bring your memories. So, invest in your memories, not TVs and McMansions! I think this is what Matthew (16:19-20) meant when he wrote:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

He wasn’t talking about giving money to the church. (Which, not surprisingly, happens to be the interpretation favored by preachers.)  He was talking about investing in your memories.

My wife and I argue about different memories. Like, she remembers, “I told you to take the laundry out of the dryer” and my memory is “Nope.” I try to explain to her my theory about multiverses—“now” is like a sliding knot on a frayed rope, and the past is the individual strands. We can both agree on “now” but as soon as it slips into the past it is subject to fraying into multiverses, all true, but different. In my strand of the multiverse, she did not tell me anything about the laundry. In her strand, she did. At that point, my strand gets thoroughly pounced. Hers is like a battleship hawser, mine, a gossamer.

Anyway, that’s book #4.  In the last newsletter, I promised the first chapter of Book #3, “Google Maps Handicap” (with “Google” changed to a name that won’t get me sued). It is a draft, but maybe enough to give you an idea where it is heading. Comments and reactions greatly appreciated. Here it is!

Book #1—“Submerged” continues to astound me. This month marks the tenth in a row it is an Amazon bestseller.  This past month I gave 3 talks on podcasts, available here. For January, I have no appearances scheduled, but I am teaching a class at George Mason University on submarines.  It promises to be exciting but a lot of work—quite different to teach an entire class than a one-hour talk!

Book #2, “How to Hotwire an Airplane” is showing signs of life, with 1-2 copies a day sold! Yay! Anyone who has read it, I would sure appreciate a review.

That’s it ‘til next month. Thank you for reading, and I hope your memory—whatever that is—of reading this is a pleasant one!

The thing they don’t tell you about writing is that once you have a few books out, much of your time is taken up by promoting them, rather than what brought you to the endeavor, writing!

This month was busy, four podcasts and one talk at Cascades Library, but I still got some time to write, and work on “MilYun Maps Handicap.”  It s still plugging along, if not exactly screaming. I will have the first chapter on the “Freebies” section of the website next month, I promise!

Submerged is still going great guns, now in sub-10,000 rankings of Amazon sales (reaching 2600 at one point, out of 48 million titles listed!) This month it will be a bestseller in two of its categories for a ninth consecutive month! Thank you to everyone who read it and sent reviews or emails.

I had a very nice interview by Terrri Lynch of “Tracer Rounds” on Military Broadcast Radio this month. Then two more on Daniel Cherkas’s podcast, one on Submerged and one on Magical Realism, which is a theme of my new book, “How to Hotwire an Airplane”. I have always been intrigued by the idea that there is a hidden order to what we perceive, that we may sense but not comprehend, and the book explores that.

The other podcast was with Gregory McNiff of New Books Network, I will post it to my podcasts page when it hits.

On Nov 25^th, I hosted a talk about Submerged at the Cascades Library in Sterling, VA, and it was literally standing-room-only! (The organizer, Jeremey Worley, had set out 30 chairs and had to keep setting up more as people came in!) A big thanks to Jeremy. I thought that would be my last, but he said a few people came up and wanted to see it again, so I may have a few more at Loudoun County libraries next year. Stay tuned!

“Hotwire” is not selling great! I feel like a parent with one successful son and one still living in the basement! But I have hope it will find an audience, and that hope was strengthened when I got an incredibly nice review in the Vietnam Veterans Association magazine! Among other things, the book is about a Vietnam vet healing from trauma, and I was over the moon to be featured in their magazine (and also get a very nice review!) So there is hope for that book yet, I think!

Besides PTSD and magical realism, “How to Hotwire an Airplane” is about illegal migration. I tried not to make it a polemic and present a balanced view of the subject. If you want to know my actual (nuanced) views on the matter, I wrote a blog about it on my website. (along with a few movie reviews, whatever strikes my fancy!)

That’s it for this month! Thanks for reading! Peace to all.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote a story about a man who pretended to be a turncoat for the Nazis, who broadcast propaganda for them during the war—think “Lord Haw Haw”, “Tokyo Rose”, Jane Fonda. Except, he was really a spy for the allies. But he does such a good job of broadcasting propaganda that during the war, his German master tells him, “I suspect you are a spy. But it doesn’t matter. Whatever use you have been to our enemies, you have been uncountably more to us.”

The story is set in a prison cell and told by flashbacks; the protagonist is about to be executed for war crimes by the victors. At the last moment, he is given a reprieve: Someone in government vouches for his story, he was really a spy for the good guys.

The man hangs himself that night in the cell, because he knows the truth: He actually did help the bad guys; he pretended too well to be one of them.

In the beginning of the book, Vonnegut writes: “This is the only book I’ve written where I know the moral, so I’m telling it to you here: ‘Be careful who you pretend to be, that is who you are.’”

Pretending. That is theme of the new movie, “Renta Familyl”, which my son and I watched last night.  A struggling actor played by Brendan Fraser goes to Japan to pursue a gig, and life doesn’t go his way. He ends up taking gig acting jobs. That brings him to “Rental Family”, a uniquely Japanese outfit that sends actors to serve in roles for people—wedding participants, funeral attendees, friends, lovers, dads. Hard to understand, but it is a real Japanese thing and makes sense in a country fast de-populating itself because they have lost the taste for, well, screwing and making babies.

The gigs he takes can be divided into three groups: the well-intentioned, the vile, and the morally gray. He acts as a friend to a fellow who needs one. The man knows he is renting a friend, but he doesn’t care. The rental family actor is kind of like a sex worker, providing emotional comfort, not physical—an analogy made explicit in a scene with, well, a sex worker, with whom he has a liaison.

Then there’s the vile: the company’s best business is for an actress pretending to be a cavil weakling’s mistress and make an abject, fulsome apology to the pathetic man’s wife, who more often than not takes a slug at the actress.

It is in the morally gray gigs that the movie becomes fascinating and holds a mirror to our lives. He pretends to be a father to a winsome 11-year old girl (who steals every scene.) Cruel? Maybe. Is the girl’s joy any less real because he has been hired for the role? When is a lie okay? Would you tell your mom she is dying on her deathbed? When is a lie a compassionate act? Tough questions.

In the other morally gray gig, he is hired by an aging actor’s daughter to pretend to be a journalist, to boost the man’s ego. A job turns into a friendship, and he risks both his livelihood and his life in Japan to help him. Wrong? To whom, exactly? The man dies with a friend. Was the actor any less of a friend because he was paid?
These are the questions the movie asks, and it’s the best kind of movie, the kind that lets you answer the questions itself. It doesn’t offer any facile solutions, only questions.

I loved it. Four stars.

A down and out loser, nurtured by internet conspiracy theories and fed a diet of wild raving, half-baked ideas, kidnaps a high-powered CEO because he is convinced that she is the Queen of an alien race come to enslave or destroy the earth, and holds her captive in his mom’s basement. 

Here’s the spoiler: She IS an alien queen come to destroy the earth! And that’s the LEAST interesting part of the movie.

“Bugonia” is an exploration into how real-life “masters of the universe”—not space aliens, the ones who reside in the corner offices, fly on private jets, and pay less taxes than the lady who cleans the toilets–do enslave us, and wield powers that will, if not actually kill us, make our lives a captive living hell. The movie riffs on the theme of bees—Teddy is a beekeeper; Michelle (the alpha-queen CEO) also espouses an admiration for them. And well she should! They are the perfect metaphors for us, you and me, today. A tiny .000001% of billionaires lord vast powers over us (the worker drones, in this not so subtle analogy).

You don’t have to be much of a conspiracy theorist, or live in your mom’s basement, to realize that to a large yet carefully made-invisible extent, we are subject to the whims and dictates of a ruling elite. Sure, we hold free elections–for candidates who are bought and paid for by that elite, because the cost of perpetually running for office is so high.

 Why can’t we have election reform like in the UK, where costs are kept down because running for office is restricted to a scant six weeks before the election? Of course we can! All we have to do is get our representatives to vote for it. You know the same people who owe their allegiance, their fealty, and most of all their office and perks to the cabal writing the checks. Fat chance.

One billionaire bought one of the last free newspapers in America, his company publishes 86% of all books published on the planet, and sells us some huge percentage of all the crap we buy.

Another billionaire single-handedly controls access to space, sells a fleet of robot cars, and (in his spare time) reshapes our government to his choosing. A third owns most of the free housing stock left in America.

The story follows Teddy and Michelle in a series of escalating verbal exchanges. If what Michelle says sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve heard it before, every time the corporate shills talk down to us as if we were recalcitrant children. (Think of the last conversation you had with the HR lady.)

“Let’s dialogue this.”

 “I think you are following a false narrative.”

 “You are living in an echo chamber.”

Speech designed to put you in your place, to make you doubt yourself.

As the movie events become more desperate, Michelle finally admits that, yes! She is an alien queen! And as it happens, we ARE conducting experiments on you, a failed ape-excuse for a species.

 Teddy responds like the dog that finally catches the truck; he doesn’t know what to do, and things end badly for Teddy. For the rest of the human race as well, as the alien queen teleports up to her spaceship and sprays a galactic can of Raid on us, thus ending the experiment. 

That is the ultimate message: they do control us, and can wield that power to wipe us out at their whim.  Bleak, but refreshing in its honesty. Let’s enjoy it now, worker bees, before they use the Raid on us.

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