Scroll down to read this post.

 

Readers!

 

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.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


New York: Oppression imposed because of almost no COVID-19 deaths

In the last few weeks the Democratic Party governments that control the state and city of New York imposed new and incredibly oppressive new rules, clamping down hard on the freedoms of their citizens, as well as the ability of visitors and tourists to come there.

The justification used by Democrats Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio for these new edicts against freedom? Both claimed that an increase to 3% of what they called “the positivity rate” required more restrictions. This increase comes from increased detection of COVID-19 due to increased tests, but it does not mean there has been a significant rise in actual illness.

You need only look at the graph below to understand how unnecessary these new restrictions are.

Daily deaths in New York due to COVID-19
Source here. The May 7th spike is due to suspicious data keeping
in New York, as explained here.

Yes, there has been a tiny rise in deaths in the past month. Nothing however that comes close to a health crisis, or is that unusual for a bad flu season. In fact, the rise is not unusual for a relatively mild flu season either. One just has to compare the recent death toll, averaging about 25-30 per day, to the daily death toll last spring, to recognize there is no justification for such draconian new rules.

And there is certainly no reason to shutter the schools. Even the CDC now admits this, with its director unequivocally stating on November 19th:

“There has been no intra-school transmission and we must make sure not to make emotional decisions when the data strongly supports making sure schools remain open… It is counterproductive to close schools.”

This statement came just one day after de Blasio’s closure order, and appeared to be in direct response to it. Numerous studies have found that children are not only practically immune from the coronavirus, they do not appear to infect others. To close the schools is imbecilic, especially considered the wealth of knowledge on this subject that now exists.

No matter. People are afraid! Rather than reassure them, we must feed their fear, and stamp that boot down on their face so they will be safe! Safety is all! To hell with freedom, common sense, the Bill of Rights, or the Constitution! Our Democrat Lords and Masters know best. We must obey them!

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

19 comments

  • The people of New York voted for this.

  • Phill O

    Must agree withe Blair. There are outcomes from elecvtions.

  • wayne

    Gangs of New York –
    The First Rule of Politics
    https://youtu.be/jadSNgp69yc
    0:25

    “”Remember the first rule of politics. The ballots don’t make the results, the counters make the results. The counters. Keep counting.”

  • Col Beausabre

    “‘Over the past few days, various sheriffs across New York state have spoken out to say that they will not be enforcing the Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo’s strict new Thanksgiving COVID-19 restrictions. Now, Cuomo is firing back to blast the sheriffs who have dared to publicly disavow him.

    ” “I don’t believe as a law enforcement officer you have a right to pick and choose what laws you will enforce, ” Cuomo said during a press conference.

    The sheriffs rebelled against Cuomo after he announced new restrictions in the lead-up to Thanksgiving that included limiting indoor gatherings to just ten people, even in private homes.”

    Yes, you read that right, EVEN IN PRIVATE HOMES

    1. Cuomo is supposed to have a law degree….yet he’s obviously never heard of the Castle Doctrine “The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the crown. It may be frail – its roof may shake – the wind may blow through it – the storm may enter – the rain may enter – but the King of England cannot enter.” – William Pitt the Elder. (The English Common Law is the basis for almost all law in this country)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine

    2. .”Hello, govnor, there’s a party next door and they have 11 people. I counted them as they entered. Send the State Police”) Yep, it would take a Gestapo start smashing down doors to chase down what’s been reported by an American Stasi. Yet, the Left insists conservatives are the fascists

    PS – something I learned as a cadet, guv, “Never give an order you will know will be disobeyed” – Douglass MacArthur, quoting his father

    3. ““I don’t believe as a law enforcement officer you have a right to pick and choose what laws you will enforce.” But you certainly think that YOU have that right (and the governor is the chief law enforcement officer of the State of New York), you lying, hypocritical, blankity blank – I’ll restrain myself so Bob doesn’t throw me out. You seem to think you can nullify the laws of the US in regard to illegal immigration. I isn’t that “picking and choosing what laws to enforce. Obviously, New York, city and state, can no longer offer “sanctuary” effective immediately. His majesty has issued a ukase!

    4. Proof that liberals have no sense of irony or self-awareness

    5. The obvious thing to do is to refuse law enforcement entry into your home – make them try and get a search warrant. Good luck with that – try telling a judge you need a warrant and that should interrupt his or her day off – on Thanksgiving !

  • Shaun

    And Cuomo gets an Emmy for all of this. Wow.

  • Mike from Casar

    And we are suppose to feel what because meat puppeteers voted for this nonsense?

  • The surgical mask has become the white sheet of the New KKK … Kuomo’s Kingdom of Karens.

  • Chris

    On the Emmy side of the Cuomo story, there is a Steely Dan song, Show Business Kids, that has a refrain toward the end of the song that nails the Emmy-Cuomo relationship.,
    That refrain would truly get me kicked off BtB too.

    Here’s a Rikki Lee Jones version
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hw4BIYh-2s

    Note the lyric warning

  • V-Man

    A few months ago, our provincial government (Quebec) proposed to enforce non-related-visitor restrictions in private homes — by having policemen do random checks in houses(!).

    It took less than a few hours for them to backpedal, hard. To say the popular reaction was… violent is an understatement. Large number of people announced, openly, that the first cop to try this wouldn’t be going home!

    If meek Quebeckers (the French-Canadian totem animal is the sheep!) have this kind of attitude, how bad will it get with red-blooded USA? The blue authorities are playing with matches over a powder keg.

  • Edward

    Col Beausabre,
    Excellent points.

    “Ukase.” Excellent word and a new one for me.

    “You learn something every day,” and I learned something, today. Now I can go back to bed, especially since there is nothing else to do in this lockdown, shutdown, smackdown, Great Oppression modern society.

    As you imply, we should keep in mind that these laws we are being required to follow are not statutory laws or even case laws but are laws by executive fiat. It is bad enough that judges have usurped the Constitution by creating laws through (mis)interpretation via court cases, so much for checks and balances, but now we have our executives announcing edicts and calling them laws. The Constitution has no provisions for laws to be made in these two ways.

    If these are laws to be followed, what is the mechanism for their removal when the supposed “crisis” is over? How long do we have to live under these laws-by-fiat? Why do so few governors, representatives, mayors, and other leaders disobey their own edicts? It is because they know that these edicts do not do what they are said to do. No one is any safer for obeying these decrees, but the leadership feels more powerful when they can get their peons to follow such counterproductive directives.

  • Joe Mack

    You can look up who donated to Biden. Get their address.
    Please don’t report them for having people at their house Thursday.
    That would be so, so, so wrong.

  • wayne

    Rick and Morty
    “The Purge”
    https://youtu.be/zNrIJ2XX80Y
    1:39

    “This girl is one of your ‘poor people.’ I guess you guys felt like it was OK to subject her to inhuman conditions because there was no chance of it ever hurting you….”

  • wayne

    Chris–
    Excellent!

  • wayne

    A Day Of Thanksgiving
    (1951)
    Centron Productions
    https://youtu.be/HocXg3soHZM?t=502

    The Johnson family reflects on what America means for their family.

  • Edward

    So, what is the cost of panicking over Wuhan? Here are some examples:
    http://thepriceofpanic.com

    wayne,
    Nice Thanksgiving video from 1951. “[I’m thankful for] knowing the knock on our door is nothing to fear. A friend calling, or maybe a bill collector, or a kid selling magazines. You never know what to expect. But you can count on one thing: it’s not going to be some political gangster coming to drag one of us off to jail because we believe in freedom.

    And some people wonder why there is such nostalgia for the 1950s, when we were free. Unlike today, when, as Col Beausabre noted, New York’s Governor Cuomo wants neighbors to rat out each other for having just one too many guests over for Thanksgiving, calling the police to drag someone off to jail because he believes in freedom.

    Yes, this year we must fear that knock on the door, because we never know which Wuhan “law” we violated. Freedom has become a thing of the past. Feeling safe from our own government is a memory that grows weaker with each passing lockdown week (week 37 has just begun in my county, with no end in sight).

    We don’t fear the Wuhan flu nearly as much as we fear that knock on the door. It could be the police, come to enforce some governor’s “law” that came into being not through our legislative representatives but because a single governor or judge deemed it should be so. No careful thought, no check, and no balance. Just one person’s opinion foisted upon the rest of us as a law of the land.

    It used to be that Thanksgiving was a time to be thankful to God that we were free, just as the Pilgrims’s first Thanksgiving feast was to thank God for the freedom to be productive and prosperous. This year we thank our governors for not cancelling Thanksgiving and for allowing us as many as ten people to gather for this thankfulnesss. That is only for states that have not cancelled Thanksgiving. For those of you whose state cancelled it, well, sorry about that. Nothing for you to be thankful for, this year.

    What a difference half a century makes.

    Welcome to Obama’s America, land of the formerly free.

  • Josh

    You must believe in scientism, not science.

  • janyuary

    Edward …. as long as folks like us — we who always regarded Obama warily, as a liability — insist on clamping blinders on when it comes to facing similar realities about those in the Republican party, as long as we play real life the same way as 4th graders play Good Guy – Bad Guy … we will lose.

    We will continue to lose American freedom, we who want to blame it all on one political party. It will have happened not because Democrats screwed things up, but because Republicans were too dim to see that their party and its primary system had long been totally corrupted, or more likely too weak to admit it.

    Honestly, it is so distressing to see such continued blundering down the same political path that got us here, this sad idea that Republicans will save us when the plain demonstrable proof is that Republicans are just low-fat Democrats, meat-and-potatoes liberty and Constitution lovers have ZERO political party … but they sure love to pretend that it isn’t true, and the more things go south under Republicans, the more they shriek at Democrats.

  • Edward

    janyuary,
    We will continue to lose American freedom, we who want to blame it all on one political party.

    This is why I dumped the Republican Party. They are no longer part of the solution but are part of the problem. The leadership and membership have moved so far to the left that they nominated a Democrat for president, thinking that he was conservative enough to make moves to save the country. He probably thinks the same. Little progress in that direction was made in his first term, and things have continued moving left. The swamp is larger and deeper than ever before, and we are sinking faster than ever, too. If he get a second term, I have little hope that he will do much more than during his first.

    As long as the Republican membership continues to accept their party’s leftward motion, and as long as the Democratic Party’s membership continues to support its race to communism (they are now passing through socialism, trying desperately to keep to the left of the Republicans), then all is lost. Ironically, the Democrats emphatically reject their Democrat president, also thinking that he is conservative, thus someone to summarily hate.

    It takes We the People to reject these moves and to demand a return to our parents’s America, when lockdowns, shutdowns, and oppression were not acceptable. The frog is getting too hot and needs to hop out of the pot and back to the lake.

    We still live in Obama’s America, land of the formerly free.

  • wayne

    Lockdown and Its Forgotten Victims
    Tom Woods
    November 27, 2020
    https://youtu.be/em9Xvz6uP2s
    37:13

    “Bestselling author and Columbia University Ph.D. Tom Woods delivered these remarks to about 100 state legislators who belong to the Young American’s for Liberty Hazlitt Coalition, whom he urged to be the voices of the truly voiceless in the debate over the correct response to COVID.”

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *