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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.


Daft Punk – Get Lucky

An evening pause: Hat tip Kyle Kooy. I don’t think the Chinese military realized that they were marching to this music, but gosh darn it, they sure appear to. As Kyle noted to me, “Somebody took a Chinese military parade and set the music to the American song “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk. … [It] creates a very mesmerizing video that is both upbeat and somewhat eerie at the same time.”

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

  • Steve

    Reminds me of the Clone Army from Star Wars. They all appear to be the exact same height and body mass….

  • Good point. I wondered how they were able to remain in such perfect equal distance through out the march. Perhaps they were specific chosen to have the same size and weight.

    Bob Clark

  • Steve C

    These guys spend way to much time marching.

  • PeterF

    As a retired Air Force veteran, I LOVE to see the premier units of the PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) march with such precision. The incredible amount of practice needed to march with such precision means that they are not training for combat.
    Historically, marching skills are useful only for moving conscripts when mechanized transportation is unavailable.
    I LOVE seeing the PLA marching
    In the USAF, the only time you get to march after basic training is if you volunteer for the color guard to carry the flag at football games.
    People forget the the US Army met the Chinese army in combat. They call it “The Forgotten War”. The Chinese (including many of their “elite” units) were horribly undertrained and unequipped. The US Army, struggling after crippling drawdowns and equipped with worn-out “surplus” equipment and barely resupplied should have kicked their butts. The only reason we didn’t was because of the below zero winter weather. The Chosin reservoir battle was an amazing example of a fighting retreat. Supply points established during the initial advance (not authorized by MacArthur) allowed them to fight a rear guard fighting retreat. The only reason the Chinese prevailed was the incredible number of unequipped conscripts who overwhelmed the Marines. Many of the Chinese didn’t even have SHOES! never mind a firearm or ammunition! The Chosin reservoir would have been an American victory if they had air cover, or resupply, (or political support).
    Even though I admire President Eisenhower (and Reagan), (I have an I LIKE IKE bumper sticker), any president who would commit American soldiers to battle without the ultimate goal of complete and TOTAL surrender of the enemy, is guilty of criminal negligence.

  • pzatchok

    Since the first gulf War the Chinese military has done an almost total about face from their old tactics of overwhelming manpower to a new, better equipped and trained military.

    They have drastically cut back manpower at the same time increasing military spending on both training and equipment.
    Add in the fact they are trying to finally build a blue water navy and improve their aircraft and they will soon be on par with the US and other western nations.

    I just hope that their military power peeks at the same time as their democracy movement does.
    Basically they get to be a superpower and then get reigned in by political pressure.

    I know, I dream a bit.

  • MikeP

    You’re absolutely right Peter. Because we did not deal with them in 1950, we have a North Korea with nukes and ballistic missles and a willingness to share them with terrorist states and a China with a nuclear arsenal that probably now exceeds our own. The fault is Truman’s, not Eisenhower’s.

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