Tag: america

Grateful vs. Ungrateful, Episode 1: The Interpreter and the Streamer

Presidents from both parties have told you the same thing.

Barack Obama, 2014: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants.”
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q_Xk66gsRU&t=828s
Transcript: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/20/remarks-president-address-nation-immigration

George W. Bush, 2006: “We’re a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We’re also a nation of immigrants…”
Transcript: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060515-8.html

Hillary Clinton, 2016: “I think we are both a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws…”
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANT_ZBhpvtw&t=1439s
Transcript: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-debate-the-university-nevada-las-vegas

Be that as it may, there are two kinds: Grateful and Ungrateful.

This week it comes down to one question. Where does your loyalty sit?

GRATEFUL: FAHAD AL-KADHIM

https://www.abc15.com/news/uplifting-arizona/u-s-military-interpreter-gifted-truck-to-launch-his-own-trucking-company

In 2007, Fahad Al-Kadhim was 17 and living in Iraq. Al-Qaeda grabbed him because his parents worked for the U.S. military. He says they tortured him for three days. His family paid a ransom to get him back.

He had a choice: hide in his room or fight back. He fought back. From 2008 to 2011 he interpreted for U.S. troops in combat. Then he came here, became a citizen, and joined the Army National Guard, where he trained as a truck driver.

On September 17, Progressive’s Keys to Progress program handed him the keys to a 2024 Freightliner, plus $50,000, to start his own trucking company. His plan is to put his girls through college and hire veterans. In his words: “To make sure I pay back to another veteran and keep that culture to support each other.”

He had every reason to stay bitter. He stayed grateful, stayed down to earth, and never got rich off what he went through.

Sources:
ABC15 Arizona: https://www.abc15.com/news/uplifting-arizona/u-s-military-interpreter-gifted-truck-to-launch-his-own-trucking-company
Progressive: https://progressive.mediaroom.com/2026-09-17-U-S-Army-Veteran-to-Receive-2024-Freightliner-Cascadia-Through-Progressives-Keys-to-Progress-R-Program

UNGRATEFUL: HASAN PIKER

Hasan Piker was born in New Jersey. He’s an American citizen with more than 3 million followers on Twitch. On The Axios Show, Alex Thompson asked him straight: “Do you think America then is worse than al-Qaeda?”

His answer: “Pound-for-pound as far as the number of deaths, yes. We have caused tremendous terror all around the world.”

To be fair to him, in the same interview he called 9/11 “a horrifying tragedy” and said, “I truly believe in the promise of America.” Take him at those words too. Then weigh the answer he gave when the question was put to him straight.

That answer isn’t a one-off. In March 2026 he joined the Nuestra America Convoy to Cuba, a trip billed as solidarity with Cuba against U.S. sanctions. In May, Fox News reported that the Treasury Department’s sanctions office sent records requests to about 40 Americans from that trip, Piker and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin among them. The question is whether the trip’s money, planning, or supplies broke U.S. sanctions on Cuba. No one has been charged, and Piker says he was never formally served.

On his stream that weekend, he told viewers: “The news is not great, OK? I mean, it’s bullsh*t, but still not great that they’re after your boy.” He said, “Everything we did was cleared by Treasury,” and that he believes the real target is Neville Roy Singham, a pro-communist tech millionaire living in Shanghai who funds CodePink and groups like it.

Here’s the part that matters most. Piker built his career telling millions of people that capitalism is the villain. That same system made him rich. In 2021 he bought a $2.74 million, five-bedroom home in West Hollywood. When people called it hypocritical, his answer was, “Tax the f*** out of people like me.” He sells his own merch. He keeps the lifestyle.

You can believe whatever you want in this country. That’s the whole point of it. But gratitude means living in a way that matches what you say you believe. Take everything the system gives you, then call it the villain from inside the house it paid for. By his own standard, that’s the ungrateful part.

This one doesn’t shout. There’s no flag burning, no rock through a window. It’s calm, it sounds reasonable, and it comes with a body count to back it up. That’s the soft kind of ungrateful, and it reaches more people than the loud kind ever will.

Sources:
Axios interview (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBJx9ypjF90&t=1153s
Axios: https://www.axios.com/2026/09/17/hasan-piker-axios-show-terrorism-america
Fox News, Treasury records requests (May 23, 2026): https://www.foxnews.com/politics/feds-subpoena-hasan-piker-medea-benjamin-over-cuba-trips
Newsweek, Piker’s stream response: https://www.newsweek.com/hasan-piker-says-theyre-after-your-boy-as-cuba-trip-investigated-11990078
Just The News, Singham comments: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/marxist-streamer-hasan-piker-says-scrutiny-over-cuba-trip-about-china
Business Insider, 2021 home purchase: https://www.businessinsider.com/hasan-piker-house-twitch-streamer-criticized-los-angeles-2021-8
The Daily Beast, his reply: https://www.thedailybeast.com/socialist-twitch-streamer-hasan-piker-get-grief-from-twitter-for-buying-dollar3-million-los-angeles-home/

SIDE BY SIDE: THE THREE A’S

Accountability. Do they own their choices, or blame others?
Al-Kadhim: Tortured at 17, he chose to fight back instead of hiding. Now he’s building his own business.
Piker: Blames his own country for “tremendous terror,” and calls the Treasury questions an “intimidation operation.”

Assimilation. Do they become American, or demand America change?
Al-Kadhim: Came here, became a citizen, put on the uniform, learned a trade.
Piker: Born here. He lives the American dream and tells his audience it’s the problem.

Allegiance. This country, or another flag?
Al-Kadhim: Stood with the country al-Qaeda punished his family for helping.
Piker: Said America is worse than al-Qaeda, pound for pound, then went to Havana to stand with Cuba against U.S. sanctions.

GRATEFUL OR UNGRATEFUL?

Cast your verdict in the comments, then send it to someone who needs to see this.

LIVE GRATEFUL 🇺🇸

Gratitude starts in the spine, not on the knees.

— A Grateful Immigrant

This Is the Greatest Republic the World Has Ever Seen — A Grateful Immigrant’s Reflection on America’s 250th

Friends,

Last night at Mount Rushmore, President Trump said it plain: This is the Greatest Republic the world has ever seen. Nothing even comes close.

He was right. And on this 250th anniversary of our Independence, I say the same thing without hesitation or false humility — as a Proud American who chose this country with my eyes wide open.

I arrived to permanently live in the United States in 1987. It came after a 15-year wait for our family’s immigration petition to be approved. Fifteen years of paperwork, patience, and hope. When the approval finally came, I didn’t step off the plane with demands or grievances. I came with nothing but grit and a willingness to become American — fully.

That gratitude has only grown deeper over the decades. I’ve traveled every state in this Union, raised a family, paid my taxes, sworn the oath of citizenship in 1992 with full conviction, and built a life I could never have imagined in the place I left behind. This nation gave me opportunity, order, and a future worth fighting for.

But my concern for her — for us — has grown right alongside that gratitude.

This republic was not an accident. It was forged from the best of Western civilization — the principles that flowed from Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome, through the British tradition, and into a new American character on this continent. A nation where rights come from the Creator, not from government. Where the people are sovereign. Where voluntary exchange and relentless agency produced more human flourishing than any system in history.

I didn’t come here to remake America in the image of the place I left. I came to join the American political family — to assimilate into its language, its culture, its values, and to give it my full allegiance. That is how immigration works when it strengthens a nation instead of straining it. Accountability. Assimilation. Allegiance. Practiced permanently, prudently, and pragmatically.

Too many today want the benefits without the burden of belonging. They want the fruits of this republic while refusing to plant their loyalty in its soil. We see it in the cheapening of citizenship, in the refusal to enforce the borders that define a sovereign people, and in the quiet (and sometimes loud) rejection of the very culture that made this the greatest republic on earth.

On this 250th birthday, we celebrate what was built — but we must also look honestly at what is required to keep it.

This republic does not run on autopilot. It demands a spine. It starts in the spine, not on our knees. It demands that those who come here do what I was prepared to do in 1987: wait if necessary, respect the process, learn the language, embrace the culture, and swear allegiance without reservation or divided loyalty.

It demands that those of us already here — native-born and naturalized alike — teach our children the real story of this nation, not the guilt-soaked caricature being pushed in too many classrooms. It demands leaders who lead from strength, not from the appearance of begging. And it demands that every one of us who loves this country act like we intend to keep it.

I am not here by accident. None of us who chose America deliberately are. We are the living proof that this republic still works — when we do our part.

So on this July 4th, 2026, I celebrate without apology. I celebrate the 56 men who signed their names to a declaration that shook the world. I celebrate the generations who defended it, expanded it, and corrected its flaws without tearing down its foundation. And I celebrate every legal immigrant who arrived the right way, did the hard work of assimilation, and became a grateful, contributing American.

This is still the Greatest Republic the world has ever seen.

But she will only remain so if we — all of us — live like we believe it.

LIVE GRATEFUL 🇺🇸

– A Grateful American