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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


Paypal lowering fees charged to sellers

Isn’t competition great? Paypal announced today that as of August 2, 2021 it is lowering the fees it deducts from the payments made by buyers to sellers.

The fee reduction is about 15% to 20%, depending on the fee, which means I have just gotten a pay raise from those who donate or subscribe to Behind the Black using PayPal. This does not mean I want everyone to use PayPay. Right now I actually prefer new subscribers use Patreon, simply because it makes me less dependent on PayPay should it decide my commentary is “evil” and must be blacklisted.

The reductions make these fees lower than Paypal’s new competitors, such as Patreon, or from the conservative right, such as David Rubin’s Locals.com and Dan Bongino’s AlignPay. However, I expect them all to quickly drop their fees as well to match PayPal. And as long as PayPal continues to treat its conservative customers like dirt, expect this competition to continue to heat up.

Lowering its price won’t help if PayPal doesn’t stop playing partisan politics. It really has only two options for maintaining its market dominance. Either it can stop acting like a petty authoritarian dictator and canceling conservative vendors, or it can team up with the government to get its competitors banned or shut down. Which do you think it will eventually choose?

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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.

 

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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.

 

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10 comments

  • John

    I just went to align pay’s website and saw “Our low processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30”. I don’t know exactly how the fee structure works, but it doesn’t matter.

    This is a conflict. When you are continually attacked, even if it isn’t violent yet, even if you aren’t fighting, you are in conflict. Paying a higher fee to someone who doesn’t want to hurt you, is an economic casualty that is has to be endured.

    Paypal and the rest of them have to go.

  • John: Those fees match what PayPal has been charging. I fully expect them to adjust them to match PayPal’s lowered prices. They just have not had time.

  • “Which do you think it will eventually choose?”

    Maybe they won’t get a choice. Maybe they will go out of business. Remember Blockbuster?

  • Jim Viscovich

    FYI Locals was founded by Dave Rubin, not Joe Rogan.

  • wayne

    Jim-
    Yes, Dave Rubin’s team is responsible for Locals.
    (Rogan- entirely different ‘thing.)

    The roots of Locals->

    “We Are Leaving Patreon: Dave Rubin & Jordan Peterson Announcement”
    Rubin Report January 1, 2019
    https://youtu.be/Zp9ZJiFFBnU
    30:59

  • Jim and Wayne: My mistake. I have corrected the post.

  • Etaoin Shrdlu

    Just set up cryptocurrency donations. No one can ban you, and the fees are just whatever the network is charging to process transactions at the moment. Yes, the on-chain fees for BTC are high right now because of the China miner shutdown. Two weeks ago it was about nine cents for an ordinary transaction. If you want even cheaper fees, small fractions of a penny per transaction, use the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

  • Etaoin Shrdlu: When I can go into any grocery store and buy food with cryptocurrency, then I will take it seriously. Right now I see it as a scam, a great “pump and dump” tool for some people to get rich by mere speculation on a phantom object.

  • wayne

    “cash, has no enemies”

  • philip

    PayPal has a rep of banning entities which it doesn’t agree with politically or socially. PP has also been listed as one of those groups who are in affiliation with the sinister, greed-saturated, and country-decimating george soros.

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