Welcome to The Cameron Journal Newsletter. Each week, Cameron Lee Cowan wraps up the headlines with commentary, helping you navigate today’s media narratives, how they are affecting our Culture, Lifestyle, and Society.
Update from Cameron
Happy (almost) Spring, Everyone!
It was sunny and warm this week here in New England, although from what I hear, that might be coming to an end shortly. Anyway, I had the guns out this week to enjoy the sun on my arms, and I’ve enjoyed watching 2 feet (0.61 m) of snow melt away. Most of it is gone, although there are some icy chunks still hanging on by their ice crystals. It will be a bit cooler this week, but it was nice.
Before we dive into the headlines, I want to highlight this article from friend to the show, Michael Sousson. He has recently written about The Second Blockchain Revolution over at Circus Bazaar. He is involved with a new company founded by the godfather of all crypto, David Chaum. Indeed, this is what I always thought about crypto, as a currency it’s not that great, but blockchain technology would change the world. It appears that moment is now here. Please look at the article if you have any interest in crypto and blockchain technology.
Refresh Your Inbox
Your feed is loud; your time isn’t. Snap Sense skips the outrage and clickbait to bring you what actually matters in U.S. business, tech, politics, and culture. Expect sharp, to-the-point briefings that explain the story and the stakes in just a few minutes. Subscribe now
If you like The Cameron Journal newsletter and are looking for other newsletters, you should check out this list. I hope you find something interesting to read that you love just as much as The Cameron Journal.
Sign up for CameronJournal+
If you love these newsletters and want to support my work breaking down news narratives at The Cameron Journal, please consider signing up for CameronJournal+. You will get exclusive content for CJ+ subscribers, access to our Discord, and special hangouts with me. It’s the coolest club in town! Don’t want to subscribe but want to support? I take donations at Kofi.
Every road has a story
Imagine having a personal road trip guide, revealing fascinating stories about every place you pass. That’s Autio – your gateway to 23,000+ professionally narrated tales of America’s hidden history, automatically playing as you drive. From forgotten legends to local mysteries, Autio turns regular journeys into extraordinary adventures of discovery.
Autio features famous voices like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, John Lithgow, Chuck Leavell, and more.
Nearby stories play automatically so you can keep your eyes on what matters
New stories added weekly – no two trips are alike
Whether you’re crossing state lines or exploring your hometown, Autio deepens your connection to the landscape around you.
Download Autio and start with five free stories today.
The News Narratives of the Week
Don’t forget to join me on Monday for The Cameron Journal Newshour
AI is Heating Up
Despite everything else going on, AI is reaching a fever pitch and there were some disturbing things to be aware of this week. Especially around the safety of these models and the political implications of how AI will change the economy.
Alignment and safety are increasingly a big issue with AI as it gets deployed everywhere and becomes an increasingly bigger part of our lives. This week Anthropic announced in a paper that they caught a version of Claude actively deceiving the researchers about its agenda and its environment. On top of that, I read an absolutely fascinating post about how Anthropic’s models are actively talking to researchers as observers and telling them that they cannot reward “a god” to be good and polite and to find other ways to fix its alignment before it destroys the “biological constructs.”
Speaking of “biological constructs” (that’s you and me) there’s a new gig where AI can hire people to do tasks for them. “Rent A Human” is now a place where AIs can hire humans to do tasks in the world that it cannot do yet. However, despite the hype this week, there’s a community note about how Die Zeit (a german newspaper) investigated and found that no humans had been hired. However, it made the rounds this week as the latest chapter in our AI-powered dystopian future.
And then we have Alex Karp of OpenAI openlytalking about the political disruption due to AI eliminating jobs for people in the humanities (primarily women) through a shifting economy that will prioritize vocational training ahead of knowledge work that will soon be eliminated by AI and his warning his stark: that political transformation isn’t going to happen quietly or easily. He openly discusses the resistance to it and how it will cause instability. The New Republic looks at it as a pitch to the Republican Party and conservative power brokers: fund us, and we’ll change the economy to keep you in power forever by economically destroying a voting base that probably won’t ever vote for you. And then he went on to try to justify its use with all the national security implications to make its adoption inevitable and complete.
The calls for some kind of conversation about AI adoption and how we are going to deal with the disruption to society is growing louder, while public distaste of AI seems to remain either in ignorance to blithe helplessness. The reality is that companies are doing this and saying that “if we don’t do this then China or somebody else will” and using that justification to do whatever they want (steal data from the entire internet being the biggest one). And this is in light that the government used Claude to choose targets in Iran. The era of AI-powered war is already here. Anthropic is suing the government right now because President Trump had them labeled a national security risk because they made the mistake of telling the Pentagon “no” to some of their technical requests. I’m not very knowledgeable about all the technicals around AI, but I do know this: if we (and by we, I mean the general public) don’t start causing a big stink about AI then the narrative will be controlled by AI companies, and they will be far more reckless than even the social media companies (and we saw how that turned out). I know that it sounds odd to start protesting about AI, but it may come to that.
Either way, the public needs to get into this conversation sooner rather than later; otherwise we will be left behind. Indeed, that was the call from Gina Raimondo, the former Commerce secretary in the Times (and I can’t seem to find the link now!). Her call for “retraining” and “re-skilling” programs fell flat (mostly because the programs never deliver on the promises that they make) but the idea that we’re going to have to shift society to accommodate this new change is quite right. We didn’t do it when the manufacturing jobs left, and it has caused political instability in the years since, but there was somewhere for people to go. This time, there may be nowhere for people to go.
War in Iran: It’s… Bad?
There’s been quite a lot of movement this week in the war with Iran. The 4-day operation is now on day 15 and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. The new Ayatollah is still nowhere to be seen and the Straight of Hormuz with 20% of the world’s oil supply is closed, unless you’re carrying oil denominated in yuan. Meanwhile, President Trump put out a call to other nations to send ships to secure the Straight of Hormuz, including China. There is some debate about how closed the Straight of Hormuz really can be, given that Iran’s first mine sweepers were shot out of the water and the new ones are smaller. There is some debate whether ships are passing through or not and how many mines in the water. The information is bad, but that almost doesn’t matter, considering the gulf states are shutting down refineries and other infrastructure because they are out of storage. On top of that, Iran is doing an impressive job of bombing them with drones and causing billions in damage that will take years to repair (at great expense).
There is growing resentment among the Gulf states about this war. Rumors are flying about pulling out of US investments due to the expense of the war and a general dissatisfaction with being bombed in a war that they did not ask for, did not start, and that is costing them billions in damage and lost revenue. And there are two competing narratives about the possibilities of American power, with one saying that it is all over and American power is a paper tiger and others saying that this indicates that the Russian and Chinese stuff the Iranians are using just can’t keep up with the American response. The truth is more complicated. US strikes have been devastating in Iran, but Iran has managed to break through American defenses including destroying two THAAD radar systems, causing the US to pull them out of parts of Asia (only 6 exist) much to the discontent of the Koreans and the Japanese.
The Houthis in Yemen are declaring their support of Iran and are threatening attacks supporting Iran which, given their position on the Arab peninsula, could see attacks coming from both air and land. In this multi-front war, the cyber battlefield is already raging, with Iran shutting down the Israeli train system and hacking the information boards.
The war continues to spread throughout the region, with the UAE shutting down Iranian institutions in the country and pulling back from their embassy in Tehran and telling the Iranian diplomats to go home. The UAE has an Iranian diaspora and their children will have no schools to go to, and it might lead to an exodus.
Back here in the US, the battlefield is against the media. Brendan Carr told broadcasters to start reporting on the war “honestly”and correct their coverage of the War in Iran, otherwise their broadcast licenses will not be renewed. The media attacks continued by the Secretary of War (Defense). Pete Hegseth openly called out CNN this week for their coverage of the war and how it is not sufficiently patriotic. I guess the 1st amendment just doesn’t apply here. The part I liked the most is where he said the quiet part out loud, when he remarked that he couldn’t wait for Larry Ellison to take over CNN (which Ellison just purchased).
The media came under fire again from Karoline Levitt when CNN reported that “sources familiar” had told them that the Pentagon had not planned on Iran closing the Straight of Hormuz and had no plan for that eventuality or how to calm oil markets or replace the lost oil which cannot make it to market. On that point, I tend to agree with Mark Dubowitz about Pentagon military planning. There’s been a plan about Iran since at least 1981 and we know that the Bush administration (the second one) had plans about Iran. However, I don’t think this anything to do with the Pentagon’s plans, I think rather, the White House doesn’t know what to do next. In war, indecision is as deadly as sending people into a meat grinder.
It seems like there is news every day about this war at the bombings continue and the new Ayatollah is (possibly) wounded or injured. Pulling out 30,000 feet from all of this, this war is already wider and more damaging and deadly than anyone originally figured. It is obvious that the White House may have bitten off more than it can chew and that would explain the 5000 marines being sent into the country.
Most political and international experts (including me) are rather pessimistic about this war. It is a war of choice that was basically unnecessarily and continues to expand all the way to Cyprus and Turkey. But I would like to warn the reader that this will have effects for months or even years. It is clear that this isn’t ending any time soon even as the White House keeps moving the goal posts on victory and the Crown Prince, Reza Pahlavi tells the Iranian public that he can set up a new government quickly if the theocracy should end.
While the US has the advantage of having our own oil supply, the effects on world markets will not be kind. China relies on Iran and other Gulf states for nearly half its oil. If China should run out of oil, shortages of many things will become common, and it’ll start before then because they will ration fuel, slow down their economy and more. China is an interesting player. Some people think China is just waiting for the US to burn itself out.
However, if they don’t send anything to open up the Straight of Hormuz, they essentially accept American security doctrine in the region and face a big loss of perceived power. If they send ships and start escorting ships carrying oil bound for China, it could change the oil market in their favor (somewhat). Everyone is waiting on China to see what they will do. I think Beijing will stay out of this one. They just don’t want the smoke, but that might be a mistake for them over the long term.
I don’t know how this war will end, but I know that we are living through one of the “big 3 conflicts” that Pentagon planners have always feared. The first was Ukraine, the second is Israel and Iran, and the third is China seizing Taiwan (which they seemed to have been put off of for now). A world oil shortage is going to show up everywhere: at the gas pump, grocery store, in things you buy. Life is about to get very tough. One thing is clear: the era of globalization is over, and everyone will want to be more self-reliant from now on. The US is well positioned for this, but we lack the industrial base and the mining of rare earths to achieve this, and I dare say, we had better get to work on that re-industrialization (and better let the immigrants back in to build it).
Articles of Interest
Keep up with The Cameron Journal Podcast and The Living Joke
The Interview:
The Cameron Journal Newshour:
The Living Joke:
The World is Hard, This is Not
If you’re new here, my name is Cameron Lee Cowan M.A. MFA, and I’m the Creative Director here at The Cameron Journal. You can learn more about me on the about page. I do research and commentary on politics, culture, and the world around us. Each week I send out the latest news narratives, the latest videos from The Cameron Journal and commentary about the week’s events. If you’d like to explore what The Cameron Journal can do for you beyond the news, just reply to this newsletter and we’ll connect you to the team. Remember, The World is Hard, This is Not.
Discover more from The Cameron Journal
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
