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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
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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.


According to a new poll, the number of voters who consider themselves independents is now the highest in seventy-five years.

Good news: According to a new poll, the number of voters who consider themselves independents is now the highest in seventy-five years.

If you call yourself independent, it means you intend to keep an open mind about who to vote for. It means you have decided that loyalty to party affiliation is not a reason to vote for a candidate. It means that you have decided to reject conventional wisdom and go your own way.

It doesn’t necessarily mean you will make a wise decision, but it does mean that on the whole the American electorate has decided our government needs a new approach, and that knee-jerk loyalty to the established political parties is not the way to get it.

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

10 comments

  • Chris Kirkendall

    This piece is spot-on. Funny – I just told my friends here at work today the same thing – that I’m 100% confident Walker will prevail. WHY?? Because not ABC, nor CBS, nor NBC even MENTIONED the Recall on their network newscasts last night – a sure sign they think “their side” is going to LOSE ! ! You know darn well if Walker was about to be ousted, it’d be the lead story. Now they’re obviously trying to downplay the whole thing, pretending it isn’t important & that a Dem loss in WI doesn’t portend bad things for their side in Nov. A far cry from a few months ago, when the protests were given front-page & lead-story coverage…

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Sorry – this was meant to be posted under the next story about the Walker Recall election – my bad…

  • BSJ

    Or it means that populace is moving to the extremes, left and right. “Main Stream” politicians are basically centrist and they are getting voted out of office more and more often.

    When the extremes get control and power, everything spirals out of control. “A nation divided against itself cannot stand.”

  • Patrick

    At least around here most of the independents are actually life long Democrats who are now totally disgusted with the Democrat party but can’t bring themselves to vote republican.

    I have found that even most tea party members are the same.

    Most republicans are not that put off by the party yet. At least around here in Ohio.

  • wodun

    It is crazy times we live in when not wanting $1t+ deficits is called extreme. I would hardly call the way congress has been run over the last 15-20 years as moderate. There are other more derogetory adjectives that would be more fitting. First among among them, corrupt.

  • BSJ

    Thanks for proving my point. You see the other side as un-American worthy of only hatred and contempt. The thing is, they see you the same way. What part of ‘divided, can’t stand’ do you not understand?

  • BSJ

    Nobody’s been voted out for being a RINO in Ohio? That would indeed be against the trend…

  • Doug Plata

    Unfortunately it is very difficult for the average (even independent) voter to truly understand what any particular candidate stands for/will do. Especially this is true at the state level below governor. So what is the best information the independent voters have to go on? That little (D) or (R) after the candidate’s name. Like it or not, parties are not going away anytime soon.

    For voters who want bipartisan solutions, a Bipartisan Coalition would help them distinguish between moderate and extreme candidates based upon voting records and NPAT scores compared to their peers (i.e. relative on the extreme/moderate scale). At a minimum, extremist candidates would get fewer votes even from the moderate voters in their own party.

  • wodun

    Who said anything about the other side?

    It is far past time the both parties returned to rational governance.

  • BSJ

    Well said, I fully agree with that!

    I stand corrected.

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