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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.


Doing everything but the job of President.

Doing everything but the job of President.

Though this data might illustrate how disinterested Obama is in actually doing the kind of job that recent Presidents have done, it also shows how truly irrelevant the Presidency really is. A President can make a positive difference, but in truth, society functions with or without him. It is just a shame that this President sees the job as merely a platform for campaigning.

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

8 comments

  • A friend sent me a video this morning of Dennis Prager who was on a panel discussion at the University of Denver, previouse to the 2010

    election, in the eight minute video clip he goes over a few key points, the main thrust of his talk is that we Americans can not articulate what it

    is to be an American and exactly what American execeptionalism is. We have forgotten or have never known.

    He remembers president Obamas comment on American exceptionalism, which was: He (the president) believes in American

    exceptionalism just like the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and any other country believes in their exceptionalism.

    (A totally unacceptable interpretation for an American president and points directly at the heart of the problem, this is devolution not evolution)

    This of course explains the core problem with where we Americans find ourselves, when your president explains too your face that his

    fundimental assessment, based on his training, studies and conclusions about his training and studies of the American experiment is that it is

    just like any other country that has ever existed you know you are in big trouble.

    I have been thinking about American exceptionalism for the past two years due a Marine friend of mine who commented that “he

    did not see what was exceptional about America and the whole concept pissed him off”. At the time I did not have a comprehensive answer

    for him but I knew I would in time. I realized that when he heard that, he interpreted it in the context that the individual American people were

    individually special, in an egotistical way. But that is not what American exceptionalism refers to, American execptionalism simply reffers to

    the uniqueness of the American Constitution and its recognition of the individual over the collective (I am simplifying to keep this short) While

    simple enough to write those words, when you think about how radical a concept it is that the founders dared introduce it into reality seeing

    that for the whole history of man on this planet that it was pure power and the abuse of that power as it related to other individuals was the

    rule. The American Constitution distinguishes America from all other forms of governance that have ever existed, and THAT is what

    American exceptionalism is about, not about ego but the fact that we as a country are unique throughout history and that needs to be

    recognized and preserved.

    I have tagged this essay below with the youtube designation of the Prager speech, I respectfully request that Mr. Zimmerman assign it its

    own panel on Behind The Black, I think it is a worth while view and it will get people thinking with a focused purpose.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=XNUc8nuo7HI

  • wodun

    If you go look at Obama’s daily schedule at the whitehouse website, you will see that Obama’s work day starts around 9 or 10 and ends after lunch. After lunch it is all photo ops and meeting with sports teams.

    Remember when the McCrystal thing happened and we learned that Obama had not met with his commanding general of Afghanistan for almost a year?

  • Notice that the president had a photo op cabinet meeting the other day because it was reported that he had not had one for

    SIX MONTHS !!!

    I wonder what they got settled?

    I saw a hell of a lot of cameras there though, so maybe not much.

    They believe everyone is asleep and no one is concerned.

    November will be here soon enough and Americans will have to demonstrate their exceptionalism.

  • Follow up:

    If you read the news today you will read how the president has suddenly “evolved” related to Israel because of Romneys trip to Israel, this in

    combination with the recent “Cabinet meeting” means that the president is reacting and not acting.

    That shows weakness.

    Exactly opposite of what people want to see and what wins.

    People see this and intuitively understand its implications related to the election, we can not be that unconcious.

    I don’t believe any media poll that says that the president is ahead, that IMO is spin and wishfull thinking.

  • wodun

    He doesn’t meet with his generals, doesn’t meet with his cabinet, doesn’t meet with his jobs council, ect but we do know he meets with Tumka every week.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    I agree with both your comments. In the same vein, it’s just been revealed that Obama backed off 3 times in the effort to kill Oama bin Laden – at the behest of…. Valerie Jarrett, his political advisor ! ! HUH ??? Someone with absoutely no foreign policy, military, or Intelligence experience “advised” him not to do it?? Talk about not really be engaged in his office or duties – to let a purely political advisor tell you when & where to conduct such a sensitive operation tells you that it wasn’t really done for military or strategic reasons at all – it was all about how to maximize the political gain he could get from it. Disgusting…

  • We are on the same page.

    I say a majority of Americans are on or soon will be on the same page.

    Eighty percent of the people I talk to, that I know voted for Obama say they will not vote for him this time.

    The other twenty percent are just mindless and are unreachable.

    I would characterize the majority of them as Democrats, not so much Liberals.

    You can count these people among the independants in this election.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Well, let’s hope you’re right – I’m amazed Obama still has as much support as he does…

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