Subscriber Tree House
There's a rainbow knife in your back
Some thoughts from a free-form imaginative
My last coffee at Starbucks
As much as I want to think the cowardly corporate capitulation to the Trump regime and its Christo-fascist power engine doesn’t bother me, going into Starbucks and seeing not one single acknowledgment of Pride stings. This is at the Giant grocery store where I worked for seven years. Every June you knew it was Pride: baristas with supportive T-shirts, Pride merch, even rainbow banners in the store. It was always corporate insincerity, and now it’s all gone. We no longer exist for them. We no longer matter.
Corporate bottom-liners really have abandoned us. This will be my last purchase at Starbucks. I’d rather buy coffee from a business that never pretended to care. I didn’t need the rainbow flags in the first place, but for companies that flew them when they thought there was no risk and now won’t because of screeching haters, I’ll gladly go somewhere else.
What they do?
They smile in your face
All the time, they want to take your place
The back stabbers (Back stabbers)
They smile in your face
All the time, they want to take your place
The back stabbers (Back stabbers)
The O’Jays, Back Stabbers, 1972
Some more thoughts (and a love paragraph to L.A.)
I lived in Los Angeles for 12 years. Hollywood, to be specific. It has always had its own place in my heart and still does. If I were to visit today, I would see the ghosts of my friends and my late partner wandering around where I spent my 20s. I was there for the L.A. riots following the Rodney King verdict. What’s happening now is not riots. It is protests used to manufacture chaos for the benefit of Trump and the people who want to see the country under the comforting assurances of an autocracy. I’m speaking out because it was my home, and because I see this for exactly what it is. I still have hope, but I know a master of lies like Trump will just keep lying and tens millions of people will believe him. He is a deeply disturbed man. Let him enjoy his military birthday party. I won’t be watching. The good news? He’s not immortal no matter what some people think. His ticket will eventually have to be punched like everybody else’s. I hope I will not have to remember America for what it once was and could still be. Time will tell, although I believe it is running out.
The Weekly Readlines June 6
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S STOP STORIES
Pass the Popcorn! Musk and Trump In Cage Match to the Death
Musk Threatens GOP Members Who Support Trump Bill
VFW Steps Up, Honors LGBTQ Veterans
Secretary of Drunk Dials Pete Hegseth Orders Renaming of USNS Harvey Milk
Trump Regime Cancels HIV Vaccine Research, Programs
LGBTQ
Dem WA Gov Raises Pride Flag Over State Capitol
Texas Governor Gets Bill Banning LGBTQ Student Clubs
Scared Advertisers, Flag Bans And Trump: The US Is In For A Troubled Pride 2025 | US News
Human Rights Violations Against LGBTQ+ Communities in the United States
Jodi Ernst Reassures Voters They Will All Die (Unless They Find Jesus)
Trump Travel Ban Will Disproportionately Harm LGBTQ+ People, Experts Warn – Pinknews
We just went from wet and cold to hot and dry. Last week it was in the 50s with rain that fell for several days, and now it’s pushing 90. If it wouldn’t shorten my life by several years I could just eliminate summer altogether. I’m a spring and fall guy, and I enjoy the winters until they go on too long, which they always do. But hey, if dead is the alernative I’ll endure the summers somehow.
CLICK HERE to take the survey and weigh in. Multiple selections are allowed!
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS
What’s your favorite type of murder mystery?
So hard-boiled I need a hammer 18.8 percent
Cozy is as cozy does 36.36 percent
Classic whodunit 40.91 percent
Procedural / historical / other 40.91 percent
It’s a hardback life
After all this time I finally tried putting out a book in hardback (Open Secrets: A Maggie Dahl Mystery). KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) now makes it very easy, and the only real change I have to make is in the size of the cover from paperback to hard. It’s all in the dimensions. This arrived and looks pretty damny good! I’ve since added Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery, and I, Warlock: The Warlock Wars Book I. I have to price them at $16.95 to make even a couple dollars, but it’s nice to have on the bookshelf.
MWA-NY New Jersey Local Group Enjoys A Tour and Lunch in Lambertville
Our New Jersey local group got together on Saturday, June 7, for a historical tour of Lambertville, followed by lunch in town. Our tour guide was Lou Toboz from the Lambertville Historical Society, a longtime resident and expert on the history of Lambertville and its surrounding areas. It included a stop at the small, old jailhouse currently under renovation, the exteriors of several famous homes, the high- and lowlights of a community that’s undergone many changes over the last hundred-plus years, and a wealth of information about Hunterdon County’s only city.
After the tour we all headed to Under the Moon restaurant on Union Street for a lovely meal and conversation. The weather cooperated to make the event a success. Among the things we learned: there are bodies buried in and along the famous canal, and the headstones in the small yard next to the restaurant are just grave markers – no one is interred beneath them! You’d have to dig up the floor of the gym next door to find them. A town of mysteries fit for the Mystery Writers of America—NY!
The Twist Podcast will return next week with something incendiary and irreverant. We promise. - Mark & Rick
Today’s parting shot … the USNS Harvey Milk
“A defense official confirmed that the Navy was making preparations to strip the ship of its name but noted that Navy Secretary John Phelan was ordered to do so by Hegseth. The official also said that the timing of the announcement -- occurring during Pride month -- was intentional.” - Military.com
The good news: Harvey Milk’s legacy will live on, while “Drunk Dial” Pete Hegseth will be remembered as a small, dimwitted nobody, if he’s remembered at all.
Subscriptions not your thing? You can still tip the barista! Cream no sugar, thanks!