Federal Government

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
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

October 2, 2018

A Nation Divided

Last week’s Judiciary Committee meetings unmasked in an indisputable fashion the deep-divide that now defines our nation.

The thought that United States Senators are statesmen suffered a debilitating blow as partisan politics clashed over the vacant Supreme Court seat that may well determine the future of the Supreme Court’s 1973 pro-abortion ruling in the case “Roe vs. Wade”.  Knowing the future of abortion, the sacred cow of liberal and progressive politics, hangs in the balance, Democratic Senators unleashed a barrage of personal attacks on Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh unlike anything I have witnessed in my lifetime.

Driven by a lust for power, coupled with a deep-seeded loathing of American patriotism, the Democrats have become the party of Global internationalism at the sacrifice of American exceptionalism.  Democratic party leaders Senators Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Keith Ellison, and Maxine Waters have whipped up a frenzy of hatred pitting male against female, black against white, and rich against poor.  Leftwing socialists and antifascists anarchists, have turned America’s “melting pot” into a boiling caldron of tension, hatred, and resentment that threaten the survival of our Constitutional Republic.

Becoming nothing more than a propaganda tool dominated by leftwing liberals, America’s news media has embraced a spurious partnership with Democrats and abandoned any semblance of reporting the news and holding politicians in check.

The United States is no longer “One Nation Under God”.  Torn asunder by rabid liberalism and radical partisanship, we are in the midst of a political civil war and the very soul of the American electorate is at stake.  In the immortal words of President Abraham Lincoln, “A house divided against itself cannot stand…I do not expect the house to fall–but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

We Americans will cast our mid-term vote Tuesday, November 6 and it is not an over exaggeration to say the future of our nation and liberties hang in the balance.

Copyright 2018 – Travis D. Smith

August 23, 2018

An Alternative to Facebook filters prohibiting free speech

Dear Friends and Followers of http://www.SpiritualMinutemen.org,

My use of this blog site has been infrequent at best; however, Facebook’s aggressive filtering of conservative voices is pushing me to move my frequent posts from my Spiritual Minutemen Facebook Page to this blog site in an attempt to deliver news that is either ignored or buried by the liberal media mongrels.

After experiencing posts being removed from my political Spiritual Minutemen Facebook Page, I will engage here and invite you to subscribe if you are interested in my brief editorial commentaries that are often attached to news that you will not hear anywhere else.

You will notice to the right of this post an area you can subscribe to by clicking on “Follow Spiritual Minutemen” and then typing in your email address for direct delivery to your email box.  I promise to deal with news that is honest and truthful, albeit often offensive to liberals, and unfiltered by Facebook.

Your patriot parson,

Travis D. Smith

February 9, 2018 Gallery

You Call This Education? I Don’t Think So!

A confession before an observation: I could care less whether or not there is a Daddy-Daughter school dance in New York City public schools or anywhere else for that matter!

I am, however, very concerned our public school systems and parents are squabbling over “political correctness” and “Inclusion” while education in the public school system has become a national crisis.

Parents and American taxpayers should be infuriated over the failure of our education system to carry out their principle charge…educating America’s youth!  The disgraceful education received by our youth is one from which this nation may never recover.  America’s public-school system needs a total re-start beginning on the local level.

Let’s be real, the duty and responsibility of training and discipline begins at home and it is not the schools’ system’s duty to teach moral values, an appreciation for learning, or acceptable behavior.  The American family is in crisis.  More than 20 million children are fatherless and many more (estimate 33%) have never known the guiding hand of a father.  Too many mothers are bearing the burden of not only parenting, but also struggling and sacrificing to supply basic needs for their children.

Sadly, there is a breakdown of discipline in our schools and survival seems to be the measurement of success for students and teachers.  Administrators order teachers to promote students through the school system, giving them passing grades for nothing more than showing up for class!

No wonder America’s youth are ignorant of phonics, cannot write cursive, are unable to read, conduct simple math, and have no knowledge of history or understanding of American government.

School administrators and teachers fret over “Inclusion” and parents seem oblivious to the reality their children’s education is being sacrificed.  Politicians and liberal media beat the drum for irrational Gender-Neutral matters, while students lack textbooks of their own and have no concept of homework.  Education has been usurped by liberal indoctrination and “political correctness” and America’s youth are the losers.

Tell the students the truth…they do not and never will live in a “fair world”; the best evidence of that is what today’s public schools’ call “education”!

Copyright 2018 – Travis D. Smith

February 8, 2018

TRAGEDY STRIKES THE HEARTLAND OF AMERICA

After a 9-year assault on “white America” (I hate to use that term…I am an American!) led by the Obama Administration and gleefully embraced by liberals who hate America and Judeo-Christian values (marriage, family, and home), we now read the largest drop of life expectancy in America is among middle-age “White Americans”.

Liberal educators, politicians, and media buffoons, got their “Hope and Change” in 2008 with the election of Barack Hussein Obama and by 2016 America became a nation feeling hopeless, believing nothing would change…on the brink of spiritual, moral, and economic bankruptcy.

Only by the sovereignty and providence of God have we seen Donald Trump elected President (and no, he is not perfect) and a non-politician take the helm of state and begin to push back against a “hate ideology” that left so many Americans despondent.

Why have Americans turned to drugs, including the epidemic of opioids, alcohol, and pursued sexual depravity at the risk of their health and future?  Why is the heartland of middle America morally imploding?

Yesterday’s report in USA Today suggests, “The problem is concentrated in rural, largely white counties that have often struggled for many years with stagnant wages, unemployment, poverty and the loss of major industries that fueled local economies…”

Predictably, Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, suggests a change of policy “directed at strengthening the middle class” will be the answer.

No, Mr. Woolf, a change of policy is not what America needs.  America needs a spiritual revival.  Our nation needs to humble herself, return to God, repent of our sins, and embrace the fundamental spiritual principles that made us the greatest nation in the world.

Although addressed to Israel, I close with a verse that should be the passion of every believer.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Copyright 2018 – Travis D. Smith

September 28, 2017

The Naivety of “Taking the Knee”

I purposed to allow this blog to lie dormant except for the most pertinent concerns; however,  the continuing offense and collusion of NFL management, owners and players provoked me to offer my view (if only for my well-being).

I hope the majority of Americans recognize the “take the knee” protests practiced by NFL players is staged and encouraged by liberals promoting a socialist, anti-American ideology, using young millionaire athletes for their own ends.

The majority of professional athletes “taking a knee” are little more than young naive college graduates.   They have been the objects of praise and adulation their whole lives for no other reason than they can run faster, jump higher, and hit harder than the average.  Apart from playing football and the wealth that comes with stardom, they are like the majority of young Americans…searching for purpose and core values.   Many of these bigger than life athletes have been coddled by parents, pampered by coaches and are ill-equipped for anything more than the games they play.

There are a few athletes in professional sports who have a story to tell and inspire others to rise above mediocrity and become successful, productive citizens; however, they are the exception.

The “take the knee” gang inspires nothing and no one.  They inflame prejudice, provoke division, and dispirit the downhearted.   They live in gated communities, enjoy the luxury of multi-million dollar estates, and on Sunday “take the knee” piously suggesting they identify with millions of fans who cannot afford the expense of parking at the stadium let alone the price of admission!

Who is to blame for giving naive young men the privilege of offending an American public?  

We are!  We are guilty of idolizing professional athletes, showering them with applause and adulation, and nurturing in them a misguided notion their underdeveloped thoughts and opinions deserve expression on America’s biggest stage.  We are guilty of paying taxes that build stadiums and then privilege these misguided young adults with an opportunity to offend sons, daughters, spouses, and parents whose loved ones died in the line of duty!

We are to blame for electing politicians, Democrats and Republicans, who are anti-American liberals, socialists, and marxists!  We are to blame for being silent when politicians, main stream news reporters, teachers, professors, community leaders, and professional athletes denigrate our nation, erode our Constitutional liberties, and assault America’s core-ideals with impunity!

Reflecting a Marxist ideology, liberals veil the offense of “take the knee” protests in the principle of “free speech”, but loathe those who point out their ignorance and hypocrisy.  

The 1st Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”  Americans are protected from a repressive government that would silence its citizens; however, the right of “free speech” does not extend to a private work place, whether it is a Mom and Pop Pizzeria, local McDonald’s franchise or an NFL stadium.

The hypocrisy of the NFL on this point is undeniable.   As a corporation, the NFL did not hesitate to silence the Dallas Cowboys when they wanted to display a miniscule helmet decal in support of law enforcement after five police officers were slain in the line of duty in 2016.   However, the same NFL management supports and tacitly encourages its players to “take the knee” supporting liberal, anti-American speech that offends patriotic Americans.

Wake up America!  You will not give a kid wearing a McDonald’s uniform a free pass on offensive speech.  You will not allow a police officer to disparage you and justify his actions as “free speech”.   Why then will you give the NFL and its players the right to defame America’s flag and National Anthem?

A liberal, socialist ideology is driving the dialog and young NFL players “taking the knee” are pawns of those whose goal is the denigration of American patriotism and the erosion of American Constitutional liberties.

Copyright – Travis D. Smith

May 23, 2017

“Never Trumpers”

The anarchist spirit of the “Never Trump” movement in our society is not only a challenge to our democracy, but also an act of defiance against the will of “We The People”.

The ability of real-time mass communications coupled with intrusive social media platforms gives radicals an opportunity to organize and foment a revolutionary ideology that is borderline hysteria. Pairing a spirit of rebellion with a general public’s ignorance of America’s history and our Constitutional form of government and the stage is set for an erosion of our laws and individual liberties.

Like sheep led to the slaughter, many young Americans are blindly following socialist anarchists bent on eroding the underpinnings of our republic and destroying America.

Copyright 2017 – Travis D. Smith

May 22, 2017

The Tragic Consequences Of Silence

* The following article is generated out of concern for the absence of pastors and Christian laypeople in the democratic process.  At a time our Constitutional liberties are under assault by the progressive, militant left, professing Christians are MIA.  Last Wednesday evening, May 15, 2017, my wife and I spoke before the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, a committee that is formed every 20 years and tasked with hearing the voice of Florida citizens concerning revisions to the Florida Constitution.  The progressive left dominated the meeting in their attendance and agenda, while the presence of conservative voices was pathetically minuscule.

Deafening silence, detachment, distance, disengagement, disorganization and moral desensitization are but a few words that come to mind when I ponder how far the average American stands from the political arena.   There is an even greater lack of participation in our democracy among those who profess to be Christians .

I have attended school board meetings, city and county commissioner meetings, and political party meetings for more than a decade, and can attest that few pastors or professing Christians in Tampa Bay engage in public forums to express opinions, concerns or outrage over laws, ordinances and public policies that not only assail biblical morality and freedoms, but left unchallenged are tools to advance the erosion of our families, communities, state and nation.

Those of us who attend and participate in the democratic process have had our eyes opened to the organized forces of liberal socialists whose ideas and politics are antithetical to America’s heritage.  Many who practice liberal politics are strongly adversarial toward traditional marriage, family, morality and decency.  Their efforts are often demonstrated in forms of mob violence, attacks on free speech on college campuses, and shutting down conservative ideas in the public forum.  School boards, city and county commissioner meetings, along with political rallies have become the staging ground for militant liberals.

The enemies of Biblical morality and conservatism have taken control of our schools and institutions of higher learning, eroding the foundations of our homes and culture.  While the moral fabric of our society hangs tattered and torn, the majority of pastors and professing Christians are dismissive of those sounding the alarm warning our families, churches, schools, and society are under attack.

Christian friend, the time for political ambivalence is passed.  If we do not awaken to the imminent threat of being silenced altogether, we will be relegated to the dismal heap of irrelevance.

It is time for all who love American freedom to awaken out of sleep!  We must become active citizens for the sake of our homes, churches, schools and our beloved nation.  It is time for pastors to assail the ideology of liberal indoctrination.   It is time for Bible believers to support pastors and churches that dare to be faithful to God’s Word and stand with them in private and public forums.

Be forewarned; history will judge us harshly for failing to be stewards of liberty and defenders of biblical morality.

  • To stay informed on issues that impact your life in Tampa Bay, subscribe to Mr. Terry Kemple’s “Community Issues Council” for Christian Citizenship in Action Tampa Bay.

Copyright 2017 – Travis D. Smith