Donald Trump Is Officially the 45th President of the United States

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Donald Trump has been officially sworn in as President of the United States today. Although Liberals and Democrats are condemning him the fact is he will be an outstanding President. I equate him to Ronald Reagan as outlined below.

Ronald Reagan stood up to rogue world leaders. He got in their face and told them to bring it on. Not one of them followed through because Reagan promised swift retaliation. Ronald Reagan brought down the Soviet Union and their nuclear arsenal.

President Reagan also stood up to Congress. The Democrats controlling Congress would bitch, moan, and complain about Reagan’s policies mostly economic policies. One day Reagan went to Congress, looked them in the eyes, and stated that if they think he is not proposing good things then he wanted to hear what they have to propose. There was dead silence from Democrats in Congress as they had no ideas at all except horribly bad ones. President Reagan replied to their silence with that’s what he thought and he went about running our country.

Democrats couldn’t understand the concept that if you give the citizens a tax break you will boost the economy. When Ronald Reagan took office as President the United States was in a major Recession. Democrat logic is always to dump more money into the economy and yet that has never worked since the beginning of time. The only way to resolve a Recession is to reduce taxes on the people. That gives the people more money to spend. When they buy more stuff businesses prosper. When businesses prosper they expand. When businesses expand they create jobs. Recession resolved. And it was less than two years after Reagan reduced taxes on the citizens that the Recession was over and our economy was booming.

This is what Donald Trump will do for our country. He will reduce Government spending. He will ensure the Government doesn’t spend more than they take in. He will reduce our taxes and new jobs will be created. President Trump will MAKE AMERICAN GREAT AGAIN!

Why I Do Not Enjoy Attending Church

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I will be honest and tell you that I do not enjoy attending church. There are numerous reasons for my feelings and I will list a few of them today.

Before I do I want to comment on the fact that going to church and sitting in church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than sitting in your garage makes you a car. I don’t believe attending church is what determines if you get into Heaven on Judgment Day. I believe it is your personal relationship with God that is judged.

There are two things to consider. First is that you can have a personal relationship with God without having to go to church and listen to sermons and go through formalities and traditions. On the flip side you can go to church, pay your tithe, sing all the songs, listen to sermons, go through formalities, and follow traditions, and still not have a relationship with God.

Remember the Bible states man who worked all the lives doing what they thought were good deeds will be turned away. Go get a Bible and read it for yourself. God reviews the books and tells a person they are not allowed into Heaven. They protest stating to God that they fed the hungry, gave money and food to the poor, and even cast out demons in his name, so why they are not allowed into Heaven. God replies to them “Depart from me you worker of iniquity. I never knew you” meaning they did all these good things to try to earn salvation and salvation is nothing to be earned it can only come from being a gift from God.

With that said here are some reasons I don’t enjoy attending church.

(1) I am quickly bored and within 15 minutes of sitting down I am falling asleep. I would rather stay home than to fall asleep and embarrass my family like that.

(2) When I was a little boy we never attended church until my father’s friend, Dale Evans, told my father he has to raise us as Catholics as he did with his family. My father told Dale he wanted his children to research religion for themselves but he did bring us to the Catholic Church Dale Evans attended. I was brought to the Sunday School and I was scared as I was alone as my parents were in church and my sister was in a different classroom. I raised my hand and asked to be excused so I could talk to my parents. The Sunday School Teacher screamed at me in front of the class and told me to sit down and shut up and that I wasn’t leaving until the class was over. I cried the whole time the class was in session. When the class was over I ran out of the classroom crying and never looked back and never went to church again until I was in my late 20’s.

(3) I’ve been a member of non-denominational churches and I’ve attended services at Pentecostal, Baptist, and Seventh-day Adventist churches. I found most members to be hypocrites as they said one thing but did the opposite. The worst were the Seventh-day Adventists who professed healthy lifestyles and yet they ate horribly unhealthy foods and most drank alcoholic beverages and smoked. I cannot sit in a church and endure looking at someone at the pulpit spewing forth healthy living when I know what they do outside of church.

I will attend the Catholic Church that Becx, Keira, and Nanay attend maybe once per month. I am not able to endure it every week. I know some of the members and I know how they are outside of the Catholic Church. I know they don’t live what they preach in the church and I know they also don’t live what they, as individuals, profess to be their beliefs and lifestyles.

When I do my once-a-month trip to the church I will write a blog to tell you about my experience. Until then understand that I feel I can have a relationship with God without having to deal with a church environment where I know over half the attendees are hypocrites and don’t follow what God asks them to follow through his words in the Bible.

Accounting for Supplemental Social Security

Written By:  Andrew Eide

When I signed up to receive Social Security Retirement benefits in 2015 the Social Security Administration explained that since my daughter, Keira, is less than 16 years of age she will receive what is called Supplemental Social Security. I asked them how she can receive something based on what I paid into Social Security and they told me that is how the Social Security Administration works. They don’t know if you have other income from work, or perhaps another Retirement income, so they feel it is important to provide Supplemental Social Security for children under the age of 16 to those who are receiving Social Security Retirement.

Since Keira is not old enough to manage her own funds I am designated as her Representative Payee. This means I receive her monthly Social Security income and I manage it for her. As you can see in the scan of the Income and Expense Worksheet the Social Security Administrative provides to me, I have to keep an accounting of the money received from Social Security for Keira’s benefit. Notice I have to list the monthly Social Security benefits received, the monthly amount spent for food and housing for Keira’s benefit, and expenses for clothing, medical, dental, personal items, recreation, and miscellaneous expenses.

The concept is simple. The amount spent on the last two columns should not exceed the total amount received for that year in benefits. If I have not spent all the money received for Keira’s Supplemental Social Security then I will be required to provide to Social Security Administration where the extra money is kept. In this case I have a Personal Savings Account in Keira’s name, with my name listed as the Representative Payee, and I would be required to notify them how much is in the account and information concerning that account.

When I spoke with Social Security Administration concerning the accounting I was told the numbers on the form should add up correctly. I told them I was keeping all receipts, scanning them, and I have so many receipts and account statements, and when I asked them if I need to send all those receipts and account statements they said they do not ask for those items unless there is a discrepancy where they determine that documents are needed to justify the numbers.

The bottom line is they prefer you spend the money for the benefit of your child than to spend very little and save a lot into a Savings Account or College Education Account. Although we would like to save over half the money specifically for use when Keira attends College the problem there is Social Security Administration would question why we are not spending the money on Keira even though saving it for her future education is, in fact, spending it on her.

In closing I received the reporting form yesterday from Social Security Administration. All they want to know is how much of the total amount they gave to Keira did I spend in support of Keira. Then the asked if anything is left over where is the money deposited such as a Checking, Savings, or Investment Account. Form way easier than I thought it would be.

Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) Increase for My Military Retirement and Social Security

Written By:  Andrew Eide

The Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) increase for 2017 for my Military Retirement and for my Social Security Retirement is here. The amount the Government decided to give us was 0.3 percent. Please don’t confuse that as meaning we received a 3.0 percent increase as some people confuse the figure. No we did not get a 3.0 percent COLA increase we only received a 0.3 percent increase. That means for every $100 in Retirement income we get 30 Cents more. If it were a 3.0 percent increase we would have received $3.00 more for each $100 of income.

So what does this 0.3 percent COLA increase mean to me when it comes to my Military Retirement and my Social Security Retirement? It means I receive $4 more per month on my Military Retirement and $4.00 per month more on my Social Security.

Keira also receives what is called Supplemental Social Security. This is paid to those of us receiving Social Security and we have a dependent child less than 16 years of age. For Keira’s Supplemental Social Security this amounts to $2.00 per month more.

As you can see receiving $48 more in my Military Retirement per year, and $48 per year more in my Social Security, really doesn’t offset the Cost of Living which is what a Cost of Living Allowance is supposed to do. I assure you that it costs me a lot more than $96  additional to live in 2017 than it did in 2016 so the $96 received total for the COLA increase on my Military Retirement and Social Security are token and do little to help meet the increase in real cost of living expenses.

The reason I get upset is that our Congressmen and Senators in Congress will tell you, if you call them, that they also received only a 0.3 percent COLA increase. What I always tell them is there is a huge difference between 0.3 percent on my Military Retirement and Social Security than there is with them receiving 0.3 percent on their $200,000 or more salaries. Even if you combine what I make with both Military Retirement and Social Security members of Congress still make more than six times what I make in one year on my two Retirement incomes so they shouldn’t even get a COLA increase.

Impersonations By Andy

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I suck when it comes to doing impersonations but I have fun doing them. Here are a few impersonations I can laugh about while performing them. I don't need to list the type of impersonation for each video and each one is self-explanatory.

New Years Resolutions for 2017

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Most of us make New Year’s Resolutions and most of us never follow through on those decisions.

I have a few resolutions for 2017 that I hope I can follow through on. The list is as follows:

(1) I want to continue to lose weight. For a time in 2016 I reached over 230 pounds. At 5’10” in height carrying 230 pounds of weight was difficult. As I’m writing this blog my weight is between 212 to 215 pounds. I cringe when I go up to 215 or higher so I want to keep under that weight. I am taking it slowly and my ultimate goal is to reach 180 pounds again. Things I do to help achieve this goal are to eat less and exercise more. My exercise since August 2016 is Disc Golf and walking. Since I am under 215 pounds my first goal would be to reach 210, then 200, then 190, and ultimate obtain the 180 pounds.

(2) The goal I have in regard to immigration is that we want to obtain Immigrant status for Becx’s mother. We filed the documents and we are waiting for them to adjust her status from Tourist to Immigrant so she can get her Green Card and a Social Security number. After that we can purchase medical insurance for her.

(3) Also on the subject of Immigration since Becx obtained her United States Citizenship in August 2016 she will file for Keira to obtain her United States Citizenship in 2017. We will also file along with that a name change for Keira. Since I had Becx change her name from Redondo to Redondo-Eide I have asked her when we change Keira’s name that we also change her last name to Redondo-Eide so she retains the history of both family names.

(4) The final resolution I have is to purchase a home in 2017. We need to work hard to ensure both our credit scores are above the 600 mark. Once that is accomplished we have a home building in Winder, Georgia, who is building close to 100 homes in a new development. We can purchase with a VA Home Loan which means we do not have to make a down payment except for a token $100 fee. Since we are purchasing the home with a VA Home Loan the builder, which is LGI Homes, will pay our closing costs. In addition to that they will pay the first year of Homeowner’s Association dues which is something like $250 per year and they will fix any defects or problems in the home they built for us for the first 12 months. The model home we want to purchase is Burton. It is a single floor home that is close to 2,000 square feet. If they can build one with a basement, which does not require that the home be built on an uneven lot, I may ask for one with a basement as I have a plan for the use of it.

I will keep you informed during the year of which of these Resolutions we managed to keep and obtain.