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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.


VA fiddled while sick veterans died

Obamacare will soon make this kind of medical care standard for everyone! A new audit of the Veterans Administration estimates that 307K patients died while waiting for requested treatment.

Read the entire article. The malfeasance and corruption at the VA is far worse than this, and goes back decades to the agency’s very beginnings. Also, giving the VA more money won’t fix it.

[T]he VA has seen its budget grow from $87.6B in 2009 to $152.7B in 2014. The 2016 budget request is $165.5B. This includes $70.2B in discretionary spending, with $63B going to medical care. So the department is asking for plenty of money to “help” veterans, but isn’t spending the money wisely.

Most of the issues mentioned in this audit were first identified in report issued in 2010. So why didn’t the VA act then to attack these problems?

Things move slowly in government, but if the work process system was this bad, why wasn’t it fixed? A part of it might be the VA wasn’t interested in fixing the system because it didn’t want to lose any money. This is a horrible theory, but it isn’t like the VA hasn’t had issues for years.

The time has come to shut these failed government agencies down.

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

6 comments

  • Phill O

    This is the net effect if the government takes over health care. In Canada, my brother in law died because the government was slow on evaluating the heart valve that was replaced some 17 years ago.

  • Ted Savas

    Just disgusting.

    If I was a Senator or Congressman, and one of my colleagues advocated for Single-Payer government healthcare (as many do right now), I would whip out a single-page bill already written, and in front of the TV cameras, say,

    “Here is a single-page two paragraph bill that mandates all Federal workers, including Congress, the White House, and the Judiciary, will use only the VA system for healthcare for three years to show the rest of the country how efficient and effective it is, and that it should be utilized by the rest of the country. Will you sign it today, Senator?”

  • pzatchok

    I cannot say anything bad about our local VA clinics and services. Youngstown and Cleveland Ohio.

    They have cared for my brother and my family quite well. My brother has MS and all other veterans (father and uncles) in the family have had fine service.

    There has never been a wait for any service.

    My friend had a mental health issue and just walked in and asked for an appointment and a doctor. Had an appointment the next day and a permanent mental health doctor the next.

    The local waiting room has now turned into a sort of social club. Guys just show up and hang around drinking free coffee. Doctors are always coming out of their offices and just asking those waiting there if there is anything they can do for them.

    As for those I know in the Obama free government plans. Well….. Lets just say Canada is looking pretty good.

  • hondo

    Services vary dramatically base on location – and sadly – attitude of staff.
    I know the system extremely well. I am totally dependent on gov’t largess – Army pension/VA disability and SSDI – healthcare is a free perk (‘cept co-pays).
    When something is free (even earned) its always buyer beware.

  • pzatchok

    My uncle had to wait 3 months for his knee replacement surgery but that was after he took a year to decide if he wanted it at all.
    He could have had them done at any time. He was just stubborn.

  • D.K. Williams

    Even with knowledge that media is watching, the VA can’t right their ship. Dr. Ben Carson’s idea to reform the VA is worth a look.

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