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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.


Kevin McCarthy drops out of Speaker election

Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-California) has just announced that he is dropping out of the race for House Speaker.

This is a breaking story, so details remain sparse. However, McCarthy’s exit today suggests that the power of the conservatives, who just yesterday threw their backing to Daniel Webster (R-Florida), is very strong. With two of the top guys from the old Republican leadership out, things are now certainly going to change in the House. This opens up the Speaker election, making it possible for a new compromise candidate to step forward. More important, that candidate is going to have to respect the demands of the conservative wing, which forced this election.

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

5 comments

  • Phill O

    A step in the “right” direction! Let us hope that the investigation into Hillary continues at full speed. I will say she is one tough cookie. I am learning that morals and politics do not mix. Maybe after the next election!

  • Rick

    I just hope the FBI is doing a legitimate investigation, although the Clinton corruption has long tentacles throughout the government.

  • Phill O

    You mean that it is not for show?

  • Cotour

    Phill, politics is much, much more about perception and not at all about either truth or morality, only perception.

    And I do not say that in a flip or casual way, truth and morality are optional for those at the highest levels of any government and we the people in many circumstances are only numbers and are expendable. And that is how in reality people must understand their government, all government.

    We the people from our perspective immersed in society call it lying, at the highest levels it is understood as justified and called an acceptable interpretation related to the greater good (a subjective judgement). This is why the people in many instances are confused about what is going on right in front of their faces.

  • Edward

    Cotour is correct. Politics is all about getting what the politician wants. That is why it is so important to vote for the person who wants what you want, and why politicians try so hard to sound as though they want what the voters want — then ignore the wishes of the voters, the promises that they made, and the truth, morals, and perceptions that they made on the voters. They are only there for their own purposes, and we can only hope that their purposes are also our own purposes.

    I once drove Route 66, but in many towns the route depended upon which era you wanted to recreate. The route would change with changes in mayors, because new mayors would change the route to pass in front of their own businesses. They had become mayor strictly for the purpose of increasing their own business — for selfish, corrupt, and greedy reasons.

    We can only hope that the people we elect are patriots who are more concerned about the general welfare than with their own. We cannot rely upon their words, but we *can* rely upon their previous actions and how long they have taken those actions.

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