Scroll down to read this post.

 

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.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed 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.


Pushback: Blacklisted small businessman sues Biden administration for its racist contracting policies

Democrats as always dedicated to segregation!
Democrats: dedicated to the new segregation!

“Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” Christian Bruckner, a Romanian immigrant who runs a small business that competes for government contracts, is suing the Biden administration for its race and gender quotas outlined in the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure law passed late last year by Congress.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law in November 2021, appropriated $1.2 trillion for new infrastructure projects. As part of this law, Congress authorized $370 billion in spending for roads, bridges, and other transportation projects. But the law contains a quota, requiring that at least 10% of all funding ($37 billion) go to small businesses owned by “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.”

Federal regulations define “socially disadvantaged” as the following racial or ethnic groups: Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, or Subcontinent Asian Americans. And women are deemed “socially and economically disadvantaged.” Small businesses owned by males who are not in these preferred racial groups cannot compete for this money. This would include not only businesses owned by white males, but also males whose ancestors are from many countries in Central and South America, North Africa, the Middle East, and North and West Asia.


You can read the lawsuit here [pdf], which specifically names as defendants President Joe Biden, Mitchell J. Landrieu (the White House’s infrastructure implementation coordinator) and Peter Buttigieg, head of the Department of Transportation. It bluntly points out that this quota violates the Constitution and numerous court decisions. It demands a preliminary and permanent injunction against the race- and sex-based quotas, declaring them unconstitutional.

Though unstated in the lawsuit — at this time — these quotas also violated numerous anti-discrimination civil rights laws passed since the 1960s. Be sure these laws will also be cited when the case is argued in court.

To the back of the bus, boy!
To the back of the bus, boy!

Bruckner is an immigrant from Romania whose parents fled that communist nation in the 1970s, coming to America to get away from government oppression and corruption. Their son, who is also disabled from a 1989 car accident, has now discovered that the American government has become little different than a communist dictatorship, favoring some and rejecting others merely because of race or sex.

Ironically, that Bruckner is also disabled but still treated as a second-class citizen under the federal government’s race and gender quotas suggests these quotas also violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which bans “employers, including state and local governments, with 15 or more employees, … from discriminating against people with disabilities.” Bruckner’s lawyers however do not cite this law in the lawsuit, probably because they don’t wish to argue that Bruckner himself deserves favored treatment because of his disabilities.

Instead, they argue that everyone, no matter who, should be treated equally before the law.

That the number of such cases has blossomed in the past few years also indicates another cultural aspect that if not fixed soon bodes very ill for the future. Because Democrats have been able to get away with numerous illegal acts in recent years, actions for which Republicans were quickly prosecuted and imprisoned, Democrats now consider themselves above the law. It no longer applies to them.

If they think it just to violate civil rights laws, they now fervently believe they have the right to do it, and should suffer no punishment for doing so. This is why college administrations, almost all of which are leftist, now routinely discriminate against whites and men. Similarly, if they think it right to impose mandates and lockdowns in direct violation of the Constitution, Democratic Party politicians do so with abandon.

Violate election laws? Sure. Put conservative protesters in prison for years without sentencing? Of course. Riot and burn and threaten Supreme Court justices with assassination? Right on, brother! Blacklist Republicans? These Trump fascists must be stopped!

Silence all debate? How dare you question our policies?

As I said, the law doesn’t apply to them. They see themselves as perfectly good and just and thus have the right to pass edicts at will.

If we don’t rein in these goons soon, they will ramp up this illegality so that no reining will be possible. The light of freedom will go out entirely in a land that was once dedicated to 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. 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

6 comments

  • David k

    Going to be shot down by courts.

    This is an administration that wants to pretend to do something while actually doing nothing.

  • pzatchok

    The defenses argument would be that the guy could have bid for the other 90% of the funding.

  • GWB

    Thank you for highlighting not just the blacklists but the pushback, as well. It’s encouraging.

  • GWB: I started to do the pushbacks because just doing the blacklists was getting for me too depressing. Also, with time the battle lines have shifted. In January 2021 when I started the daily column the leftists were aggressively smashing their boots into the faces of ordinary people with great success. Since late 2021 the illegality of their actions has begun to bounce back into their faces. That change needs to be highlighted.

  • Bob Wilson

    Bob, maybe you can run some good news articles such as this one: For the first time in 100 years Kentucky has more registered Republicans voters than Democrats.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/historic-republicans-gain-voter-registration-advantage-in-another-state-for-the-first-time-ever

  • Edward

    Instead, they argue that everyone, no matter who, should be treated equally before the law.

    There should be a law, or maybe an amendment to the Constitution to cover equal protection. I recommend that we give it the number “Fourteenth Amendment,” which would make it retroactive to just after the (Un)Civil War.

    Silence all debate? How dare you question our policies? As I said, the law doesn’t apply to them. They see themselves as perfectly good and just and thus have the right to pass edicts at will.

    More than that, they get away with disrespecting Republican Senators in public committee meetings.

    “Law Professor Slams Sen. Hawley On ‘Transphobic’ Questioning During Senate Hearing”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgfQksZR0xk (2 minutes)

    Did the professor really slam the senator or did she reveal herself as a fool? ‘Agree with us or you are a phobic “-ist” responsible for violence and suicide.’

    If the “victim” cannot cope with reality then isn’t he, by definition, in need of counseling? If he is suicidal, isn’t he in serious need of counseling? If the professor is reluctant to help the suicidal person get this counseling, then isn’t she far more responsible for any suicide than the person who sees reality?

    It is one thing to live in a fantasy world when you know that it is fantasy (e.g. playing a live-action Dungeons and Dragons fantasy roleplaying game), but it is another to truly believe that fantasy is reality. If you dress like a woman or get surgery to more resemble a woman, you still are not a “birthing person.*” This is a major problem with the Professor’s position. She is an enabler for people who cannot cope with reality, helping them to live a fantasy that leads to suicides or attempted suicides. The problem is not with the real world but with those who cannot currently cope with the real world.

    So what did the Senator and the rest of us learn? Not what the professor or NBC News think he learned. The rest of us learned a lot, too. We learned that the enablers put one in five of their reality-impaired victims into (literally) grave danger. Clearly, leftist ideas don’t work and are even dangerous. Do the enablers see this? No. They blame reality and those who refuse to live in the fantasy world.

    This very same fantasy world is the one that produces the “reverse discrimination” that violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

    * Don’t phrases like “birthing person” run counter to the women’s liberation philosophy that women are not baby factories? Doesn’t this essentially call women (and women pretending to be men) baby factories? Doesn’t this ignore the other contributions that women can make — and have made — and doesn’t it set back women’s rights half a century?

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *