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Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

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In its minority small business program, supposedly designed to help minorities, the federal government has instead given millions to firms owned by fictitious people.

9:15 am

In its minority small business program, supposedly designed to help minorities, the federal government has instead given millions to firms owned by fictitious people.

This article illustrates how deep and extensive the corruption is in Washington DC. Things have gotten so bad that we hardly notice a story like this, even though it involves a level of fraud and illegality involving millions of dollars that has become almost routine within the small business and minority set-aside programs of the federal government.

The programs were designed, with noble good intentions, to encourage new businesses run by minorities or women. Instead, a minority or woman sets up a fake company and then subcontracts the work out to others (even though such subcontracting is forbidden). No one in the federal government notices or cares, and the fraud escalates, until in examples like the one at the link, it becomes so egregious that someone in government feels obligated to prosecute. And even then, it appears that the woman charged is only obligated to return some cash and a car. It does not look like she will serve any prison time.

Just imagine how much other fraud and corruption continues to go on in other federal feel-good programs that no one has bothered to stop or notice. The possibilities are numbing.

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Virgin Galactic did another glide test of SpaceShipTwo today.

6:19 pm

Virgin Galactic did another glide test of SpaceShipTwo today.

I wonder, however, why there have been no powered flight tests so far this summer. After their first powered flight in May, it was expected they would begin a series of such flights, leading up to the first passenger flights at the end of the year. Instead, nothing.

This lack of flights feeds the long standing rumors that there are problems with SpaceShipTwo’s engine.

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Conscious Choice cover

Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!

 

From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.

 
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.  
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.

 

“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.

 

All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.

An IRS agent admitted this week in testimony to a House committee that the IRS is still harassing conservatives, three months after the targeting was revealed.

3:04 pm

Working for the Democratic Party: An IRS agent admitted this week in testimony to a House committee that the IRS is still harassing conservatives, three months after the targeting was revealed.

I am not surprised. Obama, and his Democratic cronies, want this harassment of their opponents to continue. They want to use the vast and powerful machinery of the federal government in any way possible to hinder any opposition to their power and control.

As I’ve said earlier, they are jack-booted thugs, nothing more, nothing less.

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Modern Journalism: Retyping press releases

10:45 am

This post is really about the monthly NOAA update of the solar cycle, but before I do that, I must note some really bad science journalism in connection with that solar minimum.

This week NASA released a poorly written press release describing how the Sun’s magnetic field flips whenever it goes through solar maximum, the period when sunspot activity reaches its maximum. The article gave the incorrect impression that this “flip” will be some grand singular and spectacular event and when it happens the consequences to Earth could be significant. Then it buried this most important little detail to the article’s final paragraphs:
» Read more

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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 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

An inspector general report has found that the 24 health co-ops formed under Obamacare are going bankrupt, even before they have opened.

9:20 am

Our government at its best: An inspector general report has found that the 24 health co-ops formed under Obamacare are going bankrupt, even before they have opened to their first customers.

And that’s not all:

Examiner Watchdog investigative reporting project focused on the co-ops began in 2012 and has since uncovered extensive evidence of financial mismanagement, conflicts of interest, failure to file required tax returns, inadequate capitalization and evasion of public disclosure requirements such as the federal Freedom of Information Act. A recent Examiner survey found, for example, that all but one of the 24 co-ops failed to file required tax returns, and several may invoke a highly questionable loophole allowing them to avoid doing so in the future. Even more troubling, two of the co-op loans were awarded to organizations headed by individuals with questionable backgrounds, the Examiner has learned, including an insider trading conviction and a history of child sexual abuse.

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The Obama administration has given Congress and its staff a waiver so that they will not have to pay the full cost increase imposed by Obamacare.

4:09 pm

The law is for the little people: The Obama administration has given Congress and its staff a waiver so that they will not have to pay the full cost increase imposed by Obamacare.

No waiver for anyone else, however. You gotta pay, tough luck. You ain’t an important member of the Washington elite, the royal class, the superior smarter set that makes the laws you (and not they) have to follow.

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Leaving Earth cover

There are now only 3 copies left of the now out-of-print hardback of Leaving Earth. The price for an autographed copy of this rare collector's item is now $150 (plus $5 shipping).

 

To get your copy while the getting is good, please send a $155 check (which includes $5 shipping) payable to Robert Zimmerman to
 

Behind The Black, c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

Leaving Earth is also available as an inexpensive ebook!

 

Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.

 

If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.

"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke

The government is months behind in testing the security arrangements of Obamacare.

4:33 pm

O goody: The government is months behind in testing the security arrangements of Obamacare.

“They’ve removed their margin for error,” said Deven McGraw, director of the health privacy project at the non-profit Center for Democracy & Technology. “There is huge pressure to get (the exchanges) up and running on time, but if there is a security incident they are done. It would be a complete disaster from a PR viewpoint.” The most likely serious security breach would be identity theft, in which a hacker steals the social security numbers and other information people provide when signing up for insurance.

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NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver is leaving NASA to take a job “in the private sector outside the space industry.”

9:38 am

NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver is leaving NASA to take a job “in the private sector outside the space industry.”

Garver was instrumental in accelerating during the Obama administration the new commercial space program that Mike Griffin began during the Bush administration. I fear what will happen with her gone and Charles Bolden on his own. Moreover, one wonders why she is leaving now. She has worked in the private sector in the past, but never when she had the opportunity to influence policy during a Democratic administration. It could simply be that she got an offer she couldn’t refuse. Or it could be that she doesn’t like what she sees in NASA, the Obama administration, or Congress, and wants out.

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An update on Dawn in its journey from the asteroids Vesta to Ceres.

9:30 am

An update on Dawn in its journey from the asteroids Vesta to Ceres. Bottom line:

Dawn is 18 million kilometers (11 million miles) from Vesta and 50 million kilometers (31 million miles) from Ceres. It is also 3.47 AU (519 million kilometers or 322 million miles) from Earth, or 1,310 times as far as the moon and 3.42 times as far as the sun today. Radio signals, traveling at the universal limit of the speed of light, take 58 minutes to make the round trip.

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New York’s “greenest” skyscraper turns out to be its biggest energy hog.

11:31 am

New York’s “greenest” skyscraper turns out to be its biggest energy hog.

Maybe the building’s problem is that it has Al Gore as one of its tenants.

Seriously, the article illustrates well “the law of unintended consequences.” You pass a law or regulation intended to do x, and discover that people instead manipulate the law or regulation to get y instead.

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Russia has announced that they will resume Proton rocket launches in September.

8:53 am

Russia has announced that they will resume Proton rocket launches in September.

Though they have pinpointed the specific cause of the most recent launch failure, they have not yet announced any remedial actions. Note also the expected number of launches for the rest of the year, 4 to 5, is down from earlier expectations.

Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan, an official in that country’s space program has been arrested for taking bribes.

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My rant Thursday against politicians on the John Batchelor Show

10:43 pm

On my Thursday appearance last week on the John Batchelor Show John and I devoted the entire segment to talking about the sad state of NASA and how the partisan bickering in Congress is not only failing to deal with those problems, that bickering is intentionally disinterested in actually fixing them. As I say,

What both those parties in Congress and in the administration are really doing is faking a goal for the purpose of justifying pork to their districts, because none of the proposals they’re making — both the asteroids or the moon — are going to happen.

I intend to elaborate in writing on this subject in the next day or so. In the meantime, here is the audio of that appearance [mp3] for you all to download and enjoy.

Note that I specifically talked about the following stories during this appearance:

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Two graphs that show the depressing trends of the work force for the past twenty years.

12:40 pm

Two graphs that show the depressing trends of the work force for the past twenty years.

Both reveal that, since the crash in 2008-2009, there has been absolutely no uptick, despite the desperate repeated claims of the Obama administration. The American work force, and the economy that work force represents, has shrunk, and shows no signs of recovery.

There is a solution, but no one really wants to risk trying it in our Soviet-style society.

2 comments

New evidence strongly suggests that the IRS’s harassment of conservative groups is continuing, despite the on-going Congressional investigations.

9:39 am

New evidence strongly suggests that the IRS’s harassment of conservative groups is continuing, despite the on-going Congressional investigations.

The IRS’ infamous Cincinnati office, which handles applications from groups applying for tax-exempt nonprofit status, badgered pro-life groups for information on their protesting activities as recently as late June 2013, well after IRS investigations began on the floor of the House of Representatives and elsewhere. “We’ve had three more groups come to us that have had problems with the IRS — some very recent, some current or still pending. One of them just got their determination letter,” Peter Breen, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, which represents pro-life groups targeted by the IRS, told The Daily Caller. “It’s continuing, and it needs to be addressed.”

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Of the almost 1 million jobs created in 2013, 77% are part-time.

9:16 am

Thank you Obamacare! Of the almost 1 million jobs created in 2013, 77% are part-time.

Politicians can live in a ivory tower, devising fantasy plans to remake society, but employers who wish their businesses to survive have no choice but to live in the real world. Obamacare makes hiring full time employees too expensive, so to get the help they need the employers of America are converting their staffs to part-timers.

The long term problem with this is that it will be impossible for businesses to really innovate and compete under these conditions. Moreover, the employees themselves will be poorer, either earning less or working more, while actually getting less healthcare insurance coverage.

And for this we can thank Obama and the Democratic Party. Praised be their names!

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SpaceX has confirmed that it plans to begin vertical take-off and landing tests of a full scale Falcon 9 first stage.

6:02 pm

The competition heats up: SpaceX has confirmed that it plans to begin vertical take-off and landing tests of a full scale Falcon 9 first stage.

The tests would be in New Mexico’s spaceport, and are essentially a scaled up version of the Grasshopper tests the company has been doing in Texas. It appears they are going to do these ground-up tests in conjunction with attempts on each future Falcon 9 launch to land the first stage.

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