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My February birthday fund-raising campaign for this website, Behind the Black, is now over. Despite a relatively weak initial three weeks, the last week was spectacular, making this campaign the second best ever.

 

Thanks to every person who donated or subscribed. It continues to astonish me that people who can read my work for free like it enough to donate money voluntarily. Words cannot express my appreciation for that support, especially in these uncertain times.

 

If you have been a regular reader and a fan of my work and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider doing so. I take no ads, I keep the website clean from pop-ups and annoying demands (most of the time). Thus, I depend entirely on my readers to support me. Though this means I am sacrificing some income, it also means that I remain entirely independent from outside pressure. By depending solely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, no one can threaten me with censorship. You don't like what I write, you can simply go elsewhere.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:

4. A Paypal subscription:


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


Thank you All!

July has now ended and so has my annual July fund-raising drive for Behind the Black, celebrating the website’s twelfth anniversary.

As always, I have been astonished by the number of people who freely donate or subscribe to my website, even though the site is available totally for free. It tells me I must be doing something right. Regardless, I cannot express loudly enough my heartfelt appreciation for this support. Thank you all, again and again and again!

I will leave this thank you at the top of the page for the next two days, just to make sure everyone can see it. And if you suddenly decide to donate or subscribe now, just find the tip jar elsewhere on the webpage for instructions.

Scroll down for new stories and updates.

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 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

20 comments

  • Gary Miller

    i need a contact of some sort to send money through Zelle

  • Jerry Greenwood

    Ditto

  • Jerry Greenwood

    Never mind

  • To all,

    As I added in the fund-raising post above, if you arrange with Zelle to pay me monthly, please let me know either by email or a comment that you have done so, and tell me the monthly payment date you have chosen.

  • I should add that to use Zelle you simply have to send the money to my email address, which can be found at the bottom of my essay on the “About” page.

  • GaryMike

    I’m retired and live on a fixed income. My rent went up 27% the first of the year and it now consumes 96% of my monthly social security check. To move requires money I can’t spare.

    My investments are down 34% in the past year and a half. I can’t predictably budget for my own future needs.

    I can’t afford to contribute so this must be goodbye.

    –GM

  • GaryMike: I am sorry about your financial difficulties. However, that is no reason to leave commenting here. I do not charge nor require payment to contribute your thoughts. They are welcome whether you donate or not.

  • Cotour

    GaryMike:

    You are on the frontline of the “Great Reset”. Which IMO has still not arrived in its full force.

    Nothing to worry about for you, because: “In the future you will own nothing, and you will be happy”.

    And I am not mocking you, I am but pointing out that this Liberal / Leftists / NWO / Globalist / Soros / Schwab / John Kerry (Traitor) agenda is being implemented in real time and your difficulties are a direct result of it. All of what we are going through today is entirely unnecessary and is contrived and is being installed by “president” Biden and his administration, and it has a purpose.

    *The destruction of the American economy and Americans independence. *

    How else could these political operators install their agenda in the world? America stands directly in their way.

    America must be destroyed from the inside out in order that it not stand in the way of this brave new Liberal / Leftist / Socialist utopia.

    Total very dangerous ideological political Bull Crap.

  • Mark

    ARG! 5 minutes later, is [zimmermanATnasw.org] your addy for Zelle? If true, confirm it please and don’t make us search for it, just include it with your donation instructions.

    Pretty clever hiding it in plain sight showing it as zimmerman at nasw.org when us non-rocket scientists are looking for a standard email addy. :-)

    Thanks.

  • Mark: That’s the right email address. I don’t wish to post that on the main page, because I do not wish to make it easy for evil-doers and robots to find it.

    As I mentioned, if you do subscribe by Zelle, please let me know by emailing me what the monthly payment date is and amount. Zelle does not provide these details.

  • Mark: I have also revised your comment to disguise my email address, for the same reasons mentioned in my previous comment.

  • GaryMike

    The facts I stated are true. The facts I didn’t state are fungible.

    I’m not any type of “From you according to your abilities, to me according to my needs”-kind of guy.

    By the same token, I operated my own store-front services-related business for 25 years, after I left the regular paycheck industry.

    I opened my doors each day, allowed people to come in to graze on my offerings, and some of them bought in.

    Capitalism.

    “welcome whether you donate or not” is the correct response.

    I think I’ll stick around a little longer.

    (BTW: my paycheck-earning adult life was spent working for not-for-profits where we were expected to accomplish everything having been given practically nothing to do it. I would have no investment income without transitioning from indentured servitude to self-employment).

    I’m not destitute, but I’m no longer as financially secure as I was able to work to achieve in my later years.

  • wayne

    “Adam Curry on the Value For Value Business Model”
    (March, 2022)
    https://youtu.be/PgihPtnBSek
    12:26

  • Curious Mayhem

    Have supported in the past, will again soon.

    I always thought that the policy of not claiming national sovereignty was just an extension of the 1967 space treaty. It does not disallow private property in space. It just says that the applicable law comes from some terrestrial entity. The treaty is silent on the creation of *new* sovereignties in space.

    The Moon is a harsh mistress ;)

    (I like the serif type font here, although serif is supposedly harder to read online than sans serif.)

  • Mark

    Hi Robert,

    I tried to email this but it got kicked back.

    Success using Zelle. I only wrote to try to eliminate PPs 12% cut by sending you $s direct via Zelle.

    Please consider adding your sanitized address to your donation page:

    “Send me money through Zelle. This method also charges no fees. Every dime you spend goes only to me” Add:

    “ at the following address: [deleted to avoid confusion] :-) Note, I have changed the names of the innocent and special characters to protect their anonymity. :-) This should defeat bots and hopefully increase your revenue.

    OT, I have to ask. Why is Sx taking the risk to destroy Stage 0 plus the propellant farm/s by catching SH and SS? The extra mass of all the propellant needed to be captured by the chopsticks twice is about the same as the mass of the landing gear needed for each stage. If one has multiple SHs and SSs ready to go, the risk just does not make sense to me.

    I know Elon wants to launch SH 3x per day (yeah right), but if he just has 3x SHs that have been preflighted and are ready to go for launch I propose the following:

    Launch SH/SS stack.

    Move previously recovered FIFO preflight tested SH and SS to the OLM. Chopsticks lifts and configures the stack for relaunch. Once SH clears pad.

    Move the next previously recovered FIFO preflight tested SH and SS to the OLM. Chopsticks lifts and configures the stack for relaunch.

    Recover SS and SH from first launch away from Stage 0. Preflight and place on transporter to OLP.

    Repeat as needed.

    Assuming the mass of the extra propellant is about the same as landing legs, this should be a wash. Incremental expenses would involve the cost of extra transporters, refurb/testing (that might be more efficient away from the OLP. The biggest gain is the reduction of risk in destroying Stage 0. Unless I’m missing something, this should be considered.

    Warmest Regards,
    Mark

  • Mark: When did you donate by Zelle? That you tried to email me and it bounced makes me worry that your donation went sour as well, since it uses the same email address.

  • Mark: Also, my email is NOT Bob.Zimmerman at etc. If that is the address you used it went to the wrong person.

  • Mark: Finally, thank you for the suggestion about including my email address (disguised) on the donation page. I will do so. However, I have deleted the pseudo address you included in your comment, because it was not correct, and I feared others would think it is and use it.

  • (Not that I really want to recommend Google for anything these days, but) one of the nice things about Google’s Gmail is that you can configure it to automatically forward received messages to some other email address that you specify. Thus, you could make yourself a Gmail account and include that address on your “About” page, and thereafter receive and read email that people send to it from the vantage point of your personal (hidden) email address — without anyone else ever seeing that personal address.

  • James Street

    Thanks for your blog Robert. Congratulations on keeping the lights on another year.

    You are a citizen journalist.
    https://bit.ly/3zSPjHX
    “We Own It” – Wiz Khalifa featuring 2 Chainz (2 minutes)
    (It’s an older video, sir, but it checks out.)

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.

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