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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.

 

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House committee imposes major cuts to Justice, FBI, Commerce

As had been suggested by its decision to not impose any cuts (or increases) to the NASA budget, the House appropriation subcommittee in charge of Commerce, Justice, Science-related agencies imposed all of the 28.8% cuts required by the House leadership on the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Commerce department.

Overall, the bill appropriates $58.4 billion for programs under the jurisdiction of the committee, a $23.8 billion cut compared to the current fiscal year. It eliminates 14 “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs in the covered agencies, cuts spending on “wasteful” climate change programs, and saves more than $50 million by ending the Biden administration’s plan to replace auto fleets at the Department of Commerce and Department of Justice with electric vehicles.

According to the GOP summary, the Commerce Department would see a $1.4 billion cut in discretionary funding, and the Department of Justice would see a $2 billion cut. Federal science agencies together would face a $1.1 billion cut under the bill.

The FBI’s budget is to be cut $1 billion, or 9% (an actual cut, not a reduction in the increase in spending), with $400 million of that coming from salaries and expenses. It also forbids the agency from spending a dime on its planned dream of a new posh and palatial headquarters in the DC suburbs, twice the size of the Pentagon and costing more than $3 billion.

This is exactly what Republicans should have been doing for decades, and were too cowardly to attempt. If an agency of unelected employees in the executive branch abuses its power and causes harm to innocent citizens, something the FBI and the Justice Department have been eagerly doing since Trump became president, then it is the responsibilty and obligation of Congress to use its power of the purse to cut those agencies’ funding.

Even now, however, no one should be confident these cuts will end up in the final bill. This is only the recommendations of one subcommittee. There are still many Republican cowards in the full House, and even more in the full Senate, who will gladly team up with the Democrats (who are all in favor of the abuse of power and the harm to innocent citizens) to reinstate the cuts.

Nonetheless, this is a start. It indicates that we might finally have turned a real political corner towards reform.

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

8 comments

  • Cotour

    Related: Ron Desantis on CBDC

    https://www.tiktok.com/@ambrushfire/video/7255833644051287338?_r=1&_t=8e11sEzEOwV

    No ambiguity there.

    America must NEVER do such a thing.

  • Max

    TickTock? Really?
    It won’t play on my phone unless I voluntarily give them access to all my data, messages, bank accounts, location, and a live microphone so it can listen to everything I say to others. It will also screen what I look at, just like Google, and delete the thing’s that it doesn’t want me to see.
    Dangerous…

    Under the emergency authorization, the constitution and it’s protections no longer exist. Haven’t you noticed that all the government agencies are doing exactly what they want, when they want to? regardless of what the Supreme Court says? The evil the permeates our government and DARPA is so far removed from the will the people that they are acting in the open without any regard for any constitutional rights. At the recent FBI hearing proves they’re getting away with it!
    Here’s a program with a former pharmaceutical executive and a constitutional lawyer.
    Although the discussion is about the fake covid vaccinations, which are now admittedly “bio weapons” from the department of defense pushed upon pharmaceuticals by operation warp speed. Other ramifications are much more insidious in the long run.
    https://home.solari.com/sasha-latypova-interviews-katherine-watt-on-us-military-domestic-bioterrorism/

    Keeping in mind who holds all the cards right now, if there’s a cut back in funding… I can guarantee it’ll be a House cleaning of the whistle blowers and the Republicans and holding back all those that can be trusted to do what needs to be done. Think of it as “the night of the long knives” when the SS kill the rivals the brown shirts, their former friends that put them in office. The government will use this opportunity to secure there hold on power and yet at the same time create a private army working for the federal reserve that are currently being given military weapons for clerical work in the IRS.

    Never let an opportunity go to waste…

  • Jeff Wright

    This is beautiful.

    End the alphabet police..esp BATF..

  • Allan

    Thank you, Max. As only a casual follower of news (including alternative and free media) this is the first I’ve heard, specifically, why Tick Tock is bad. I think their subscribers are either unaware, or have no problem with and even enjoy their lives being an open book. Not caring about principles. Hence, the alternative name Thick Tock.

    The rest of your commentary is almost too depressing to bear. Thankfully, we have the information and the voting booth… Oh, wait.

    The best we can do for now, I’ve decided, is to just live our lives the best we know how, doing the right thing, being honest and productive citizens, supporting that which is good and shunning what is not. Do not succumb to hate or excessive anger. Set an example. Be ready to forgive when the time is appropriate but insist on justice and not forget, as you have not forgotten with your reference to the nazi era.

  • Cotour

    Related: JANET YELLEN DOES NOT INSTILL CONFIDENCE (sigma3ioc.com)

    Not if you are an American that is.

  • John

    We see this political theater periodically. It’s to give the illusion the opposition party is representing its constituents. The leash is a lot shorter when they control three branches of government.

  • I’ve decided, is to just live our lives the best we know how, doing the right thing, being honest and productive citizens, supporting that which is good and shunning what is not.

    IMO Allan, part of that is recovering and retaining our decision-making authority over our lives and families – looking to “experts” and “leaders” and “helpers” as advisers while we insist on thinking independently and having the ultimate say.

    Even when that means more effort – and risk – on our part.

    Even when that offends these notables and their book learning and elite status. For they lack your proximity- and consequence-informed insights … and they pay no real price for getting the answers wrong when it comes to YOU.

  • Max

    Alan, you’re welcome. But it is no secret that most apps collect data, TickTock collects more than most bypassing having to buy it from the other venues… It is linked to ransom ware used against government and state agencies because of employees passwords or official email being compromised. leading to it being banned for that reason.

    As for voting… mail in ballots, in a recent examination, were being sent to registered voters using an invalid address causing the ballots to be sent back to the post office. The mistake was to be corrected but the ballots were never resent, they were filled out and given to mules to dump in voting boxes. Just before the election, the addresses of registered voters was corrected to make it look like the fraud did not occur.

    Computer voting is another matter, here is a thorough investigation showing how what people was watching on TV was a simulation and not the actual voting. (there’s an interview with the authors of the article doing a detailed explanation at the bottom of the article)
    https://joehoft.com/breaking-exclusive-a-shocking-analysis-of-election-night-reporting-and-the-companies-that-manufacture-election-results/

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