August 12, 2024

Hillsborough County Florida Primary Election 2024

I have had some ask about Voter Guides for Florida’s upcoming primary vote. The Early Voting period is August 10-17, 2024. Primary Election Day is August 20, 2024.

I do not have recommendations; however, Terry Kemple, the President of the Community Issues Council, does a great job of interviewing and researching candidates and their positions. I have found him a trusted resource and a friend of conservative voters.

The attached PDF is from Terry Kemple and was his recommendation as of early August 2024.

A patriot parson,

Travis D. Smith

8-1-24 Primary Election VotesDownload
August 12, 2024

Spiritual Minutemen and the American Patriot

Nearly four years have passed since my last post on this website, http://www.SpiritualMinutemen.org. Entering the primary season, I feel burdened with the need to revive this platform to inform, challenge, and encourage those seeking a spiritual perspective on current events. A second post will follow this initial post and offer suggestions on voting for residents living in Tampa and Hillsborough County, FL, from my friend, Terry Kemple.

My Perspective on the Biden\Harris Presidency

As a nation, we have survived COVID-19, the election of a man who campaigned for the presidency from his basement, the melodrama of January 6, 2021, a coordinated political assault on our nation’s youth that promotes gender dysphoria, belies biology and threatens the last vestiges of moral decency, an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump that was either a tragic comedy of incompetence or a diabolical effort to kill the Republican nominee for President and the recent coup that removed the Democratic nominee for President and replaced him with his socialist Vice President as a contender for the office of President.

Somehow, “We the People” have survived the first three and a half years of the Biden\Harris Administration, despite its assault on individual liberties and the fledgling American economy that has been torched by out-of-control spending and produced inflation like we have not seen since the early 1980s.

Can the United States recover from the devastation caused by the presidency of Joe Biden? Can a national leader be this bad without making it his goal to ruin everything he touches? Can we survive a Kamala Harris presidency?

The attached article was authored by journalist Sharyl Attikinsson. It is a frightening microcosm of the destructive policies and inept state of the Biden\Harris administration and the failure of the federal government to uphold the sovereignty of these United States.

I fear, as goes Arizona, so goes the State of the Union.

https://sharylattkisson.com/2023/03/arizona-county-sees-377-surge-in-human-smuggling-610-increase-in-fentanyl-under-biden-admin/?utm_source=wnd&utm_medium=wnd&utm_campaign=syndicated

Although it was a promise the LORD made to king Solomon for Israel, I cling to the hope that there will be a day when believers will call upon the Lord, humble themselves, pray, and seek the LORD with all our hearts.

Are “We the People” willing to turn from our wicked ways? Surely the LORD will not only forgive our sins, but might He also heal our land? (2 Chronicles 7:14)

A patriot parson,

Travis D. Smith

Copyright © 2024 – Travis D. Smith

December 12, 2020

Why Would Americans Feel Worse Off Today Than Four Years Ago?

Spiritual Minutemen Readers:
I have hibernated this blog site for the majority of the past four years. In part, because the threats to our Constitutional liberties lessened during the Trump era; but also because I felt the world had enough bad news reminders.
Nevertheless, the following headline from THE Hill caught my eye this morning:
That headline, and the poll that inspired it, deserves a rational response.
Why would a majority of Americans surveyed feel worse off today than four years ago?
In my opinion, many of our fellow-citizens suffer from what I define as short-term memory loss. A reflection on the past often takes on a better light than it was in reality, especially compared to the immediate.
A negative view of present conditions, compared to four years ago, can be traced to what we have endured as a nation in 2020.
1) Freedom loving Americans have lived through excessive totalitarian shutdowns, mandated by state governors and local politicians who care little about Constitutional freedoms.
2) We have watched private-owned, small businesses forced into bankruptcy by mandated shutdowns, followed by widespread unemployment.
3) We have been disheartened by news of the militant Left’s riots, and acts of violence, that turned some of our cities into desolate wastelands.
4) We witnessed corruption in our election system that defies any explanation less than a massive coordinated hijacking of the electoral process.
5) Finally, individual liberties are being assailed by leftist socialist Democrats.
We are witnessing the erosion of our freedoms.
Freedom of speech has been shut down by social sites, newspapers, and media broadcasts. The right to peaceful assembly has been outlawed under the guise of COVID-19 guidelines. The cherished freedom of religion has been either severely limited, if not essentially shut down and fined by local politicians, effectively outlawing houses of worship.
Are we worse off than four years ago?
Looking back on 2020, I am afraid the answer is, yes. However, we are delusional if we do not think conditions are about to get far worse as the Biden\Harris administration is empowered to force upon us not only their rhetoric, but also their marxist ideology that is morally bankrupt.
I fear 2020 may one day be remembered as, “the good old days.”

Proverbs 29:2 – 2  When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

Your patriot parson,
Travis D. Smith
Copyright 2020 – Travis D. Smith
November 20, 2020

Is COVID-19 real?

Is COVID-19 real?
Absolutely; however, is it bad enough to force every American to wear a mask, destroy the economy, our livelihood, and our families?
Something to think about: Did you know, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), that in 2017-2018 nearly 45 million Americans had the flu, 808,000 were hospitalized, and there was more than 66,000 deaths?
You might argue, “COVID-19 has killed many more!” Maybe, but the problem with that argument is we really do not know!
For instance, the CDC’s own website is still estimating how many verified cases of flu there were in 2017-2018, and every year since. In other words, not only are cases of COVID-19 estimated at this time, but we all know the numbers have been politicized.
By this time, nearly every American has heard of suicide cases labeled COVID deaths; accidents labeled COVID-19 deaths; even the terminally ill with cancer, dementia, or pneumonia…all labeled COVID-19 deaths.
Is COVID-19 real? Yes, but are we being hoaxed for a political reason that is inevitably an attack on, and is eroding our liberties? I encourage you to listen to this clip of Dr. Hodkinson and draw your own conclusion. He says in it:

“Social distancing is also useless because COVID is spread by aerosols which travel 30 meters or so before landing,” Hodkinson claimed.

He also said “positive test results do not, underlined in neon, mean a clinical infection”, but simply serves to drive “public hysteria”.

My opinion is that his argument is commanding!
The following is his bio.
“Dr. Roger Hodkinson is the former Chairman of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons committee in Ottawa, he was once CEO of a large private medical laboratory in Edmonton, Alberta, and for the past 20 years has held the position as Chairman of a Medical Biotechnology company based in North Carolina currently tasked with selling a COVID-19 test. He is a medical specialist in pathology, which includes virology, who trained at Cambridge University in the UK — he is perfectly positioned to speak on this topic.”
A shepherd and a patriot,
Travis D. Smith
Copyright 2020 – Travis D. Smith
October 28, 2020

Rush Limbaugh, His Peace with God and Himself

I have followed Rush Limbaugh’s radio career since 1987. I have no doubt that he has been the force that God used to cause Conservatism to resonate with the American electorate. Almost singlehandedly, Rush Limbaugh took on the old Republican establishment and exposed many of them for what they were, “Rhino-Republicans,” Trojan horses of liberalism, masked as conservatives.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/rush-limbaugh-plea-re-elect-trump

When his voice grows silent with death, as all of our voices will, he will be missed much, but I rejoice he has found peace, by placing his faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior.

A shepherd and a patriot,

Travis D. Smith

Copyright 2020 – Travis D. Smith

August 7, 2020

In the Midst of COVID-19 and the Public School Shutdown, Has Anyone Noticed Hypocrisy?

The Hillsborough County School Board has voted to shutdown public school classrooms for students until October.

Studies of COVID-19 have shown that most children are symptom free and hardly susceptible to Coronavirus. In spite of that fact, all education in Hillsborough County public schools will move online to e-learning until at least October 2020.

What will change between today and early October when the Hillsborough County School Board proposes to reopen the schools?

Photo from TampaBay.com.

The School Board gave the Teacher’s Union what it demanded, but where does that put single parent households or households that demand both parents go to work?

For taxpayers, we see monolith school buildings in our communities that remain empty. We also have children in our community who have not had a day of classroom education since March 2020.

Finally, the hypocrisy of some public educators is stunning. I was an early proponent of the right to homeschool and championed homeschooling as an option beginning in the 1980’s. The right of parents to determine their child’s education was a crusade that faced a formidable adversary combining the power, influence, and finances of Teacher’s Unions, politicians, and state and local school officials. That same adversary is now a proponent of homeschooling themselves as they demand the right to stay at home, teach students online, and continue to draw their salary and benefits.

Hillsborough County needs School Board members who are not tone deaf to parental concerns. Our community needs school board members who put students first. We need school board members who are listening to the majority of teacher professionals who are ready to be back in the classroom with their students.

Is it not time to stop placating Teacher’s Unions and put children first?

Copyright 2020 – Travis D. Smith

July 28, 2020

WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU?

WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN THE MILITARY IS DEPLOYED TO GO DOOR TO DOOR WITH A GOVERNMENT-MANDATED VACCINE?
My last post on this Spiritual Minutemen Blog was March 2020. It goes without saying that much has changed in the past four months and I cannot think of anything that is better. The rush to a COVID-19 vaccine and the President suggesting he will deploy the military to vaccinate the population is alarming.
Warning: The following is a quote from an article that you may find very disturbing and is currently BLOCKED by the FACEBOOK monitoring police.
“DNA-altering mRNA vaccines are physiological slavery…This genetic modification is unethical and will cause dependence on the technology, not adaptive immunity…Preliminary clinical results show that compounding injections of this technology cause symptoms, adverse reactions, and precursors to chronic disease. As the dose is increased, human recipients become at greater risk of health complications and hospitalizations.”
For more information, go to the link.
March 16, 2020

Coronavirus and A History Lesson from Another Crisis – September 15, 2008

March 16, 2020

As I see panic gripping our nation and its rippling effect around the world, I ponder the question:

When was the last time I experienced a hysteria like the one I am witnessing in the United States?

The date was September 15, 2008, less than two months before the historic election that propelled Barak Hussein Obama from the relative obscurity of a junior U.S. Senator to become the President of the United States.

When the Federal Reserve refused to bail out Lehman Brothers and guarantee its loans, that giant financial investment bank filed for bankruptcy. Lehman Brother’s default set in motion a national and international economic crisis that experts suggested nearly plunged our nation and world into another Great Depression.

Bank failures, a plunging stock market, consumer default on home loans, and an eventual bail out of two of the big three automakers created instability and economic havoc.

For the Democratic Party and its socialist policies, the stage was set to take the White House in 2008, as well as, the House of Representatives, and Senate.

Dateline: March 2020 – A national crisis with seven months to the Presidential Election.

The news of the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the public panic fed by a 24\7 news cycle has forced politicians to respond to perceptions over reality (death toll as of March 16, 2020 is 69 according to USA Today).

Federal and state governments are instituting harsh policies that politicians insist are necessary to curtail the spread of the virus. The Washington Post headline reads: “U.S. Life Shuts Down Due to Coronavirus.”

In a matter of days, we have witnessed something no one expected: the world’s strongest economy is in trouble, federal interest rates are at zero, and the great surge of support for the re-election of President Donald Trump is threatened as he and his administration grapple with the Coronavirus and the political fallout.

What do 2008 and 2020 have in common? 

A crisis that has set the stage pitting two political ideologies against one another: Republican vs. Socialist.

Like the wizard hiding behind the curtain on the Wizard of Oz, I wonder who is pulling the levers of power in the current crisis. Regardless of who or what is behind the turmoil, the power to decide our fate as a nation still rests with “We the People.”

As Americans, we have an opportunity to decide if we will live in a “nanny-state” and serve the government, or if we will accept nothing less than a government that serves “We the People.”

Let us not place our faith in men. Trust God knowing He is Sovereign.

Romans 8:38-39 – “38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Copyright – Travis D. Smith

August 2, 2019

Socialist Health Insurance

Make no mistake, when the federal government, in partnership with state government, take over health insurance, government hacks and politicians will decide who lives and who dies; who has access to medicines and surgical procedures and who does not.

When the power of life and death is in the hands of bureaucrats, the long-awaited era of “Big Brother” will be realized and your viability as a citizen will be determined not only by your health, but also your political views.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/50148/watch-cnn-host-gets-kamala-harris-admit-shes-amanda-prestigiacomo?utm_source=shapironewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=080219-news&utm_campaign=position1

July 29, 2019

Four-Year-Old Illegally Removed From Homeschool Parents

The following is a video made by parents of a 4-year-old who was seized from his parents with no formal charges, hearings, or intervention prior to the seizure.

https://www.wnd.com/2019/07/snatched-government-illegally-takes-child-from-parents/

Is this the state of America?  With all the abuse that occurs within households across our nation, why does law-enforcement in Texas target, from all accounts, a loving home-schooling family?

Knowing socialists look at children as the property of the State, I am afraid this is where we are headed as a nation if the rise of socialism is not answered with a harsh rebuke at the ballot box.

Copyright 2019 – Travis D. Smith