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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. 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. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it 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.


A cold-eyed look at Trump’s actual record

Link here. Key quote:

While Sessions, Cruz, and others on the outside like myself were fighting the worst immigration bill of our generation in 2013, Trump was promoting the Dream Act. When it really mattered he wasn’t with us.

Moreover, what sort of judges would Trump nominate? Where does he stand on proposals to rein in the lawless courts? If he believes the courts are the law of the land, even when they violate the most fundamental rights or original intent of the Constitution, as he did with religious liberty, what will he do when the courts inevitably use the same phantom 14th Amendment legal theory to toss out his immigration proposals?

While I will vote for Trump in a heartbeat should he be the Republican candidate running against either Clinton or Sanders, he isn’t yet that candidate, and conservative voters have an obligation to look at him honestly. From my perspective, he is not the candidate I want, as he in the end will likely not really change anything as President, but instead continue the general policies that have gotten us where we are. He might make some radical changes around the edges, on hot-button issues like immigration, but overall his political philosophy is that of a traditional liberal East Coast New Yorker.

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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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

2 comments

  • Cotour

    There is a requirement upon becoming the president of the United States. You must raise yourself up and become more than you are as it relates to your responsibilities related to the Constitution and the exercise of power and not how you “feel” about an issue or problem (Obama fakes leadership).

    True leadership is not about how one feels and about enforcing ones feelings on those who disagree, but about objectively leading those who agree with you and most importantly those who do not quite see eye to eye with you related to those issues that need to be dealt with with a force of vision. That test is not passed by every president and it remains to be seen whether Trump will be able to “see” and manifest this highest of requirements of an individual empowered with the office. I call this the George Washington test.

    We have observed from the beginning that Trump is a different kind of person and should not be discounted and has the potential IMO to attain that highest of objectives: balanced and reasonably benevolent exercise of power while fulfilling ones fiduciary responsibilities. We may or may not see whether he has these inherent abilities, he is certainly a better bet in my estimation than either, Sanders, Clinton or and this may be the most important person not to empower, Jeb Bush.

    The Bush’s and Clintons over the past 30 years have delivered us to this point in our country’s existence where we insanely appear willing to sell out our Constitution and sovereignty and our security, why would the people of America want more of that? Do they seriously think (hope) that absolutely no one is paying attention?

  • Steve

    Cotour said:
    “….True leadership is not about how one feels and about enforcing ones feelings on those who disagree, but about objectively leading those who agree with you and most importantly those who do not quite see eye to eye with you related to those issues that need to be dealt with with a force of vision….”

    ***********

    Correct. The best President’s use their bully pulpit to encourage their followers and their critics. Obama has used his to inflame his followers and belittle his critics.

    Another test that goes hand in hand with this is whether a President can act as well as speak. It is not enough to give a good rousing speech, he or she must follow it with even-handed action that mirrors their words. And here again Obama has failed, routinely saying one thing and doing another.

    I too think that Trump has these abilities within him, whether he rises to the higher-calling or not remains to be seen.

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