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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.
 

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The Obamas have taken more than a vacation per month in 2013.

We don’t need no stinking sequester: The Obamas have taken more than a vacation per month in 2013.

I don’t mind them taking the weekend off. It is the apparently unlimited travel expenses on the taxpayer’s dime that gall.

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

7 comments

  • Pzatchok

    I’m so proud.

    We have a royal family.

  • Patrick Ritchie

    This is a rather interesting question.

    If I made $400k a year and had my house paid for, taking a ‘vacation a month’ with my wife and two daughters would not be excessive. But in the case of the POTUS you can’t take a vacation without the secret service tagging along and flying on Air Force one… which is where a majority of the costs come in.

    So do we ask the president to stay home to save costs? Or allow him to travel without his entourage? Both reduce costs…

  • The problem today is that elected officials, especially the president, have literally a blank check. No one questions any of the spending they are doing for travel. Obama has been an particular abuser of this, as there has probably not been one month where he hasn’t been traveling somewhere on our dime, but I don’t limit my criticism to him. Bush abused this as well for political reasons.

    Also, in the past the entourage was far smaller, in far riskier times. During WWII Roosevelt traveled to Poland, Iran, and other places to meet Churchill and Stalin with a support staff that probably never exceeded 30 people (including security), if that much.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Obama’s daily schedule as posted on the WH website: 10:30 AM, a briefing for himself & VP Biden (45 min.) ; Lunch ; 2:25 PM, interview w/ Univision, the Spanish language network ; 2:40 PM, another interview w/ a 2nd Spanish-language network. Now that is one very hard day’s work – and it’s tough living in the WH, with the Master Chefs preparing meals, the state dinners (all details taken care of by the planners) and of course, we all know the WH ain’t exactly the Hilton ! ! So let’s not begrudge the president a little time off to “decompress” – he deserves it ! !

  • Pzatchok

    Now we are being called racists for even bringing it up.

    Somehow its akin to saying ‘upitty nigros”.
    Or a back handed reference to ‘those typical ‘welfare recipients’ and wasting benefits.”

    Of course that is coming from that idiot Al Sharpton and his show.

    Typical lefty, if they can not defend it then attack the messenger for pointing it out.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Well, I’d like to stay away from the race aspect of it – I disagee with almost every Obama policy, but it has nothing to do with his race, and everything to do with actual POLICY. Of course, as you point out, that will not stop the Left from trying to MAKE it all about race. Anyone who disagreees with Obama is obviously a racist, and that’s the only reason for disagreement, according to them.

    But I’m just amazed at the lackadaisical attitude towrd actual work by this WH – the previous Admin ran a very tight ship, the president up very early to work out & expected everyone to be there & well-prepared at 7 AM sharp, continually meeting with economic advisors, Pentagon officials, Congressmen & Senators, foreign leaders, etc. You look at this schedule with the first event at 10:30 (only 45 min) then a LONG lunch, followed by 2 brief fluff interviews in the early PM, and that’s it for the day?? Who wouldn’t like to work a schedule like that? You’d hardly even need a vacation from that kind of schedule…

  • Thomas

    This is just the right trying to fabricate a scandal out of thin air. Obama has taken far less vacation time then his predecessor, GW Bush, and less time then the elder Bush, and less vacation time then the hero of the right, Reagan,who was hardly a workhorse President. Obama has however taken more vacation time then Clinton and Carter.

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