Intro
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.
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.
Remember, The World is Hard, This is Not.
Update from Cameron
Hello everyone! I’m writing you with a heavy heart this week. there is alot going on multiple fronts and I’m going to break it all down for you. Today was a tough day and sadly, I just didnt’ get this until later in the day. I hope your holidays went went well. Mine went very well and I hope you joined me on The Cameron Journal Newshour this past Monday as well.
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The News Narratives of the Week
Don’t forget to join me on Monday for The Cameron Journal Newshour! We will have a special guest in the 2nd half of the show this week, so make sure to come on by!
The Shooting in Minnesota
Unless you’ve truly been under a rock, you are probably aware that a woman was shot by ICE during an altercation in Minneapolis, Minnesota this week. This shooting has triggered a chain of events that is remarkable and has become a symbolic line of the present Presidential administration. It is unclear, why ICE or the victim, Renee Good, were in this particular quiet residential area. According to her ex-husband, Renee was not an activist and was in the area dropping off her 6 year old for school. However, others have noted that the other woman in the video (in the black jacket) was her wife and appeared to be aggressive towards ICE and that she might have encouraged her wife to go disturb the proceedings. Some people have said that she got what she deserved but there is much controversy around that. The public has spent the last few days analyzing various videos that have been released with Liberals declaring it a violent over-reach of state power while Right-Wing and MAGA people are siding with the officer, Jonathan Ross.
I have my own view of the shooting but I will let you make your own decision. There have been multiple videos and commentaries on the shooting. Here’s a few if you want to dig into this:
Unaired CBS Segment with Analysis from Former FBI Agent
Footage From the ICE Officer’s Phone (graphic)
And there’s Ring Camera Footage from Down the Street
The most insane part of all of this is that Renee Good was shot just 4 blocks from where George Floyd was shot. Not being a local, I had no idea and I was shocked that this was the case. It adds a certain pallor over everything. And to top it off, this wasn’t even the only federal-agent-involved shooting this week. Two people were shot during a traffic stop in Oregon.
Regardless of if you agree with the immigration crackdown or not, these shootings are a symbol of state power. Not only is the legality of the state power being used rather weak, but given much of the footage after the incident, before the incident and during the incident, to many people, it seems like federal agents run amok. Some will say that finally the government is shooting the right people. I think it is troubling that we are encouraging the government to shoot people at all. Although it burned down in controversy, that was one of the points of the Black Lives Matter protests.
When state power gets out of control (even if you think it is a good idea) it always leads to the degradation of rights and liberties. Indeed, that is the point of those “Don’t Tread On Me” flags. However, I think many have decided, especially in light of the recent social program scandal that has thrown Governor Tim Walz out of the governor’s race in Minnesota, that the federal should step into these places and clean out the criminal migrants who pray on our generosity and are scamming us.
I think it is important to remember that we can accomplish the goal of cleaning up crime and solve immigration issues without shooting people who aren’t committing crimes. Protesting and following federal agents is not a crime. Some will say that Renee Good got what she deserved for interfering with police action. It is not clear that she was interfering, other than the fact her car was in the middle of the road (see videos above). She didn’t deserve to die, in my view.
Venezuela’s Future
In my last newsletter before I took a break for the holidays, I entitled it, “Are We Invading Venezuela?” and the answer to my question is…sort of but not really. Over the break, the US performed a targeted strike in Caracas that ended in the capture of Nicholas Maduro, that nations dictator for nearly 13 years. He followed on Hugo Chavez who had nationalized the oil companies to take advantage of the wealth produced by the oil in the area. Sanctions followed, including sanctions that put American oil companies out of the country in 2019.
President Trump was reminded of that this week when he rolled out the red carpet for Big Oil at the White House. However, it appears that his plan to “run the country for awhile” and seize back the oil leases (and they were leases) as well as the refineries is going to backfire. Venezeula’s oil is low quality and is expensive to refine. It is of the lowest quality and it is not economical to produce unless the price of oil is quite high. On top of that, to build everything needed would cost $100 Billion. This week, major oil companies created a situation where they told President Trump “no sale” without saying as much. They made demands of security guarantees that he will not (and cannot) agree to.
As I discussed in this week’s blockbuster article on Venezuela and The Cameron Journal Newshour, this is not merely an act that violates international law but a significant shift in American strategy. We are entering a multipolar world and the latest action in Venezuela is indicative of the new strategy. However, with no real plan for what’s next, it appears that the shift is already falling flat. Tucker Carlson was even more bold when he said that we had officially ended the Republic and we were entering and Imperial phase. If the last empire was accidental, this one is very intentional.
The Minnesota Fraud Scandal
Another huge story, also from Minnesota is the Somali social services fraud scandal. This latest chapter in this was kicked off by Nick Shirley, an on-the-ground reporter who found out at the fraud and decided to investigate himself. The fraud has been known since 2023 and the Biden administration had prosecuted several people in connection with the “Feeding America” program. The people in question had misused Covid-era funds that were supposed to go to hungry children. You can watch everything for yourself including the original Nick Shirley video that sparked all this controversy and a recent CBS investigation into it that seems to ask some difficult questions about what he found. Whistle blowers in congressional testimony have stated the Governor Walz knew about everything and others have said he’s implicated in the crimes. A few extreme cases have called for him to be hanged for his crimes.
The scandal has broadened and deepened to other program including daycares, home healthcare, and more. Despite hand-wringing from Democrats over the exploitation of Minnesota’s generous social programs, the President and the Right have come down hard on the state. Just today, the USDA has suspended all funding to Minnesota and isn’t the only agency to do so. Indeed, one of the reasons that ICE was sent to Minnesota, along with Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, was because of this very scandal. It seems that everywhere you look in the state, there is fraud being committed and over $9 Billion has been wasted. Some of the money has even gone overseas to the terrorist organization, Al-shabab. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said in a Friday presser that Treasury will recover what funds that they can.
There is a rumor that Governor Tim Walz will resign this week due to the scandal and the shooting of Renee Good. This whole situation confirms (in the minds of some) the narrative that Democrat-run cities and states are simply dens of corruption. Calls for investigations into other states have grown.
The most interesting question, and the one no one is asking, is “why now?” The scandal is not new. The Harris campaign decided it wasn’t a reason not to choose Walz for the VP slot in 2024, so why the hubbub now? Conjecture would say it could be political from Trump. Others would say that Nick Shirley was just a good guy, bringing public attention to something that had flown under the radar.
America’s Lost Generation is Out Now! Get Your Copy!
I’m excited to announce that America’s Lost Generation is out now! It’s available everywhere books are sold or through The Cameron Journal directly. You’ve been hearing me talk about this book for a long time, and you’ve read the Millennials collection on The Cameron Journal. Looking to Japan for guidance (and a cautionary tale), I told the story of Millennials through their voices.
Articles of Interest
Keep up with The Cameron Journal Podcast and The Living Joke
The Interview:
The Cameron Journal Newshour:
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