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The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

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Michigan Supreme Court calls lock down orders by governor illegal

The Michigan Supreme Court today struck down the endless number of arbitrary lock down orders imposed by Democratic governor Gretchen Witmer, stating that her actions were “an unlawful delegation of legislative power to the executive branch in violation of the Michigan Constitution.”

In a 4-3 ruling, the court determined the governor did not have the authority under state law to issue any additional emergency declarations pertaining to the pandemic after April 30. That was the last date when the legislature allowed the governor to declare an emergency.

Whitmer has relied on an interpretation of an emergency powers law passed in 1945 and the Emergency Powers Act of 1976 to issue a litany of executive orders related to the pandemic. The orders mandated the closure of businesses and restricted the number of people allowed to gather at events, all in the name of safety and preventing the spread of coronavirus.

Everyone whose businesses were damaged or lost their job because of her illegal actions should sue Witmer personally. This abuse of power should cost her, in the hope that other governors down the road will think twice before trying the same thing.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

8 comments

  • wayne

    Steven Crowder
    Rally against Whitmer
    October 2, 2020
    https://youtu.be/RvxyYarHulI?t=1669

  • Sage

    The federal court system can find a way to issue stays and injunctions against the Trump Administration on a dime, even where its authority is unambiguous, but somehow the Michigan Supreme Court cannot be roused for a full five months to prevent a literal, no-kidding, full-spectrum dictatorship from taking effect in Michigan.

    What a disgrace.

  • Andrew M Winter

    As militant as I am prepared to be on these “the greatest insult to civil liberty since slavery” ( to paraphrase AG Barr ). It is very comforting to see that legal due process can still work. As I phrase it, “In a Republic you have only two choices when exercising your Right to Self Determination, the ballot box (i.e. democratic due processes) or the bullet box.

    While I am prepared for either eventuality I GREATLY PREFER the ballot box option. I might run out of ear plugs if I must use the second one.

    The questions remian, having ruled how will that court enforce? How will those lockdown orders get rescinded? When will Michigan be a Free State again?

  • wayne

    “High court strikes down Whitmer’s emergency powers; gov vows to use other means”
    Detroit News 10-2-20
    https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/10/02/michigan-supreme-court-strikes-down-gretchen-whitmers-emergency-powers/5863340002/

    “Lansing — In a landmark ruling with far-reaching implications, the Michigan Supreme Court decided Friday that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer violated her constitutional authority by continuing to issue orders to combat COVID-19 without the approval of state lawmakers.
    The state’s high court ruled 4-3 that a state law allowing the governor to declare emergencies and keep them in place without legislative input — the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act — is unconstitutional.
    The court was unanimous in ruling that a separate law — the 1976 Emergency Management Act — did not give Whitmer the power, after April 30, to issue or renew any executive orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic after 28 days without Legislative approval.”

  • Jay Cee

    According to my reading of the court papers, the emergency power expired in April and anything since then has no legal status,

  • Edward

    Why is it that the same people who support lockdowns and masks are the same ones who idolize the governors who actively sent ailing Wuhan Plague patients into nursing homes? Michigan is one of those states.

  • wayne

    “Ilse Koch: The {expletive deleted} of Buchenwald”
    Biographics 2019
    https://youtu.be/Ox6J4vlrfF8
    15:55

  • David M. Cook

    In Oregon, the leftist, lesbian governor (Kate Brown) was sued for the same reason: Her emergency executive powers only last 28 days according to the Oregon State Constitution. This time the crooked lefties packing the Oregon Supreme Court said this is just fine & dandy! Why should I obey the law when the Left refuses to do so?

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