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Steve Craven

@kekepana.bsky.social
1.4K followers 498 following 2.7K posts

Former trade negotiator, economist and U.S. diplomat in Europe and Asia. GATT and Tokyo Round. NSL4A. Currently paddling outrigger canoes in Hawai’i.

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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 13h
Trump complains about any other country that has thoughts about U.S. politics, but never hesitates to stomp all over their politics. I’m certain you won’t be surprised that he fails to understand why the French demonstrations are happening. He’s just showing his own racism to the world.
politico.com
Trump blames mass protests in France on ‘out of control mass migration’ and Islam
Neither migration nor religion are part of the movement, which began over frustrations with school conditions.
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Reposted by Steve Craven
Scott Lincicome @scottlincicome.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
So, we did a Jones Act video... 🤣
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
All of this is true. But, on top of that, I am so embarrassed by how my country is viewed around the world. Trump's America has become a laughingstock, unreliably incompetent or a prospective enemy, or all three, among our former allies.
open.substack.com
For Midterm Voters, Foreign Policy Isn’t Feeling so Foreign
Trump’s disastrous choices on the world stage are hitting close to home for many. Candidates, take note.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Trump’s reading of the First Amendment: Free speech for me, but not for thee.
news.bloomberglaw.com
DOJ Wants to Muzzle Judges Who Speak Out About the Rule of Law
Opinion: The Justice Department’s filing of an ethics complaint against federal judges in Minnesota represents an escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to quell criticism of its actions.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Good on ya, mate! Trump is already a lame duck, so it is the view of the next US administration that matters. Anybody’s guess what that might be coming.
ielp.worldtradelaw.net
Australian WTO Reform Submission Calls for SOE Disciplines
A couple months ago, I mentioned a new EU paper on WTO reform, in which the EU argued for stronger WTO disciplines on the behavior of certain state enterprises. Now Australia seems to be joining the c...
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The decaying mob boss knows how to make friends, doesn’t he? Kinda reminds me of a wall he insisted somebody else would pay for.
theguardian.com
Trump threatens to double tariffs on South Korea if they do not pay for Alaska natural gas pipeline – US politics live
President has claimed pipeline project was part of a deal made last year to lower tariffs on imports from South Korea in return for billions of dollars of investments in the US
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Wow. If you were ever in doubt about whether or not Trump is running a tyranny, here's a thorough indictment. This is almost made for an impeachment.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I served under a few excellent political ambassadors and a some “diplotourists”. Truthfully, my career ambassadors ranged from great to mediocre, though none plumbed diplotourist depths. Today’s diplotourism is rampant and is merely a part of the orange one’s hollowing out of the Foreign Service.
787casuara.substack.com
Diplotourists
Trump the traditionalist
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I taught economics for a short time. He would have gotten an F.
politico.com
With Republicans in trouble, Trump gives himself an A+ ‘on everything’
The president's self-assessment comes as voters give him far lower marks on the economy and cost of living.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I occasionally checked on the political contributions made by ambassadors I worked for. Just curious, you know. It really struck me that Vienna went for only $250,000 in the 1990s.
nicholaskralev.substack.com
The Most Absurd Ambassadorial Appointments in Modern History
Envoys of Hitler and Trump dominate the list, but appointees of three other U.S. presidents also make the cut.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hmm .. I don't hear Navarro offering to stop interference in future Canadian elections. Did I miss something important?
politico.com
Navarro warns Canada against election interference
Trump's trade adviser also told Canadians lobbying on K Street to "get the hell out of our country" during an event in Washington on Tuesday morning.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Foreign Service Officers take the same oath to the Constitution as military officers. We have the same obligation and expectation not to obey illegal orders and commands.
jameslbruno.substack.com
Listen Up U.S. Diplomats: Do Not Follow Illegal Orders
Never have America’s career diplomats faced a magnitude of moral dilemmas in carrying out their duties as they do today under the corrupt, morally bankrupt and lawless Trump regime. How will they act?
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
No surprise that Alan Wolff is absolutely on 🎯. I was a young negotiator preparing for the Tokyo Round when we had the interagency debates about 301. What Alan relates is where we ended up.
cnn.com
Author of America’s tariff statute: Trump’s tariffs are illegal | CNN Business
Ambassador Alan Wolff says President Donald Trump’s novel implementation of America’s tariff law is illegal and runs counter to how Congress intended the presidential power to be used.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The avowedly anti-Communist Trump tyranny is taking a Communist approach to government ownership of private companies. Not surprising from the old hypocrite.
theguardian.com
The truth behind Donald Trump’s ‘biggest oil deal in world history’
The US’s oil deal with Venezuela faces multiple legal and logistical problems, including questions about whether it can be implemented
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I think I am Ciceronian. You probably are too, but so many people are absolutely certain in their beliefs and thus unapproachable by rational argument. Keynes reputedly said when asked why he changed his mind: “When confronted with new facts, I often change my mind. What do you do, sir?”.
aeon.co
A good sceptic has more than doubt and less than certainty | Aeon Essays
Cicero’s life and thought are a testament to the idea of probabilia: we should be confident in our beliefs, but never certain
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The decision by the Supremes was ludicrous, but so was reporting by most major media. They broadcast that Trump had won and could use the SAVE Act to lop off eligible voters. They often missed that states could still choose not to participate. My state, Hawaii, has already said “No, thanks”.
civilbeat.org
Supreme Court Lets Trump Use Revamped Federal Voter Database
The ruling is unlikely to affect Hawaiʻi, since state use of the federal SAVE program is voluntary. But voting rights advocates here voiced disappointment.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The decrepit orange one enjoys pomp. He thinks it means he is still important. He abhors substance. That requires study and thought he would rather leave to underlings.
theguardian.com
Pomp over progress in Xi’s US summit with Trump is a win for China
While US president hailed visit as ‘great’, almost nothing of substance was achieved on resolving thorny issues
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Check out the 2026 NSL4A Midterms endorsements. By seasoned military and diplomatic professionals who spent lifetimes protecting democracy. Are there any in your state?
nsl4a2026endorsements.substack.com
2026 NSL4A Midterm Endorsements | Substack
Official NSL4A endorsements for the 2026 midterm elections, including candidate profiles, endorsement letters, and press releases. Click to read 2026 NSL4A Midterm Endorsements, a Substack publication...
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The usual Trumpian failure. Every country knows the mob boss is transactional - and that is his negotiating weakness. They know they can offer him bright shiny “deals“, he will fall for it, loudly declare “victory“ - and they won’t have to follow through. He only wants the “victory“ headline.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The GATT did well, though not perfectly, with consensus-based decision-making. But today, when certain countries, especially my own, use “consensus“ as a veto, I see a good argument for a “blocking minority” approach in the WTO. Good suggestion.
ielp.worldtradelaw.net
Decision-Making in the Absence of Perfectly Spherical Cows
Last week, I had the distinct honour of participating in the plenary session that launched the WTO World Trade Report for 2026. You can check out the recording. In the week prior, WTO Chief Economist...
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I tried to keep up with it all so I could explain things to local businesses, but gave up. Too much for one guy on a home computer. So I turned to educating non-financial journalists and politicians about who really pays for tariffs. May have convinced a few.
theguardian.com
‘There’s a whipsaw nature to it’: how we’ve covered Donald Trump’s tumultuous trade wars
The erratic escalations and climbdowns by the US president have made covering trade disputes a high-octane affair. We spoke to some of our business reporters and our correspondent in Toronto about how...
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
George Kennan was the sort of diplomat Trump cannot stand. Professional, thinking years ahead, examining long-term consequences, coldly analytical, immune to whims of the moment and the fruitless search for easy victory. The aging tyrant can’t understand such thinking and despises it.
open.substack.com
How we can beat China
The trick is to let them beat themselves.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The self-described "genius", a stereotypical victim of Dunning-Kruger, is still trying to rid himself of anyone in government who may know more than he does about highly specialized subjects. He can't stand knowledge and expertise.
federalnewsnetwork.com
Cleared talent retention: A national security imperative | Federal News Network
Retention needs to be viewed for what it is: a strategic issue with direct implications for national security.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“Donald Trump predictably, reacted with rage, calling it a “hostile act,” threatening to cut off all trade with Europe. And nobody cared.”
paulkrugman.substack.com
Fear Strikes Out
But the hatred remains
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
We were America’s first line of defense. U.S. diplomats aren’t allowed to do that job anymore.
nicholaskralev.substack.com
Rebuilt After 9/11, U.S. Diplomacy Now Lies in Ruins
My book about the Foreign Service, “America’s Other Army,” current not long ago, reads like a historical document.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The hard urgent work of damage control begins in January. Jen Rubin lays out the monumental task. Her list will lengthen as the mob boss and his gang perpetrate more crimes over two more years. Overturning executive orders will be easy, but can’t begin until a Democrat is in the White House.
open.substack.com
An Oversight Bonanza
🚨47 Days to the Midterms🚨
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
In the 1980s in Taipei, I met a woman from Mexico City (not a city of easy breathing) who exclaimed that she had not expected to be shocked by pollution again. AIT Taipei worked with Taiwan to build the first island-wide monitoring system. It gave the first clear picture of what they were breathing.
npr.org
Air pollution spiked after the Trump administration stopped embassy monitoring
In 2025, the Trump administration ended a long-running program to collect air pollution data at U.S. embassies. A new study suggests that led to a 24-33% increase in local pollution levels.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Trump’s “convention” in Texas was more of a tent revival in which MAGA deified its master. And mainstream legacy media did us a total disservice in its coverage, doing its best to normalize the abnormal.
open.substack.com
Words & Phrases // *Plus last night’s major SCOTUS ruling regarding the USPS*
🚨49 Days to the Midterms🚨
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Extraterritorial application of the Trump policy of protecting pedophiles.
thesun.co.uk
Paedo US diplomat seized in dawn raid on London flat and smuggled out of UK
AMERICAN spies grabbed a paedophile working for the US Embassy in London and flew him back to the States — without informing ­British police. The cloak-and-dagger operation was sparked by officials…
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Where Dems should begin in January: investigations, hearings and control of funding. Impeachments, while spectacular and emotionally satisfying when they begin, can wait. Damage control comes first.
open.substack.com
What to Defund
🚨50 Days to the Midterms🚨
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
If it hadn’t been bookended by the Trump regimes, the Biden administration would have been seen as the most protectionist since Hoover. PoliSci guys like to think they understand economics and international trade. Doesn’t mean they do.
ielp.worldtradelaw.net
Jake Sullivan Wants To Build On the Biden Administration's Industrial Policy
In a recent article, Jake Sullivan makes the case for continuing on with the Biden administration's economic policies, arguing for an even broader and more comprehensive industrial policy than what we...
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The aging mob boss never got into anticipating the potential consequences of his actions. U.S. food product exporters may not have lost the Canadian market forever, but it is gone for at least the lifespan of current management.
thecanadianvanguard.com
Adapting to Consumer Boycotts: How Canadian Food Retailers Are Pivoting to New Global Markets - The Canadian Vanguard
A growing consumer push to buy Canadian and boycott U.S. products is reshaping supermarket shelves in Canada, forcing grocers to improve country-of-origin ​labeling and secure new sources of supply.  ...
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Been wondering what Little Marco has been up to. Of course, he doesn’t mention that no evidence has been presented that links the people who have been murdered at sea to the cartels. Or that, even if they are, that doesn’t carry an automatic extrajudicial death sentence.
france24.com
Rubio defends anti-drug boat strikes, warns of cartel 'cancer'
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended controversial strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats during a visit to Ecuador on Wednesday, arguing Latin American cartels would "eat these countries…
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Much to agree or disagree with. I mostly agree, but Noah neglects a critical task: addressing the things that make people want to leave home and risk fleeing to an unknown country. We need to restore/expand foreign aid to make their home countries more liveable. This will reduce economic migration.
open.substack.com
Liberalism needs a new philosophy of immigration
We need to make a principled stand instead of a tactical retreat.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
“… the initial plan to allow the beef imports was announced the day after a closed door meeting between Trump and a Brazilian meat packing billionaire who is a major donor to Trump.”
paulkrugman.substack.com
Where’s the Beef (Coming From)?
Meat and freedom!
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
“… the centerpiece for Trump’s tariff regime was the 20-plus “trade deals” his team announced last year to great fanfare. Yet many of them have turned out to be little more than press releases, if that.“
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Trump has made things simple: the United States of America cannot be trusted. Moving their gold is mostly symbolic, but when sovereign countries see it as necessary …
paulkrugman.substack.com
Ingots We No Longer Trust
America’s word is as good as gold — that is, unreliable
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Russia’s top asset in Washington keeps obeying his spymaster in Moscow.
politico.com
Trump says he’ll ask Europe to pay back US for munitions sent to Ukraine
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Russia’s assets in Washington are working overtime and in the open to hand Ukraine to their master in Moscow. What hold does Putin have on them? Might it have something to do with young girls?
paulkrugman.substack.com
Imperialist Delusions and the Price of Fuel
Trump and Bessent tried to betray Ukraine. Now they don’t have any cards.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The infantile tyrant is well on his way to destroying the American military, and he has already taken us out of international aid, ignores international law, and has decimated U.S. diplomatic capabilities. What more could an enemy of the United States ask for?
nsl4a.substack.com
National Security Leaders for America Gravely Concerned Over Loss of Experienced Military Leadership
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s resignation continues pattern of “hollowing out” experience and expertise from America’s military, leaving America at risk.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Did you know, and do you care, that since October 2025 our racist tyranny has admitted 6,668 refugees, 6,665 of whom are white South Africans? That’s 99.955%!
contrariannews.org
Americans Reject ICE Hellscape: Trump’s ethnic cleansing and terror backfire
*62 Days to the Midterms*
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Trumpists: We’re socialist when we want to be and that’s when we can make a buck out of it.
ielp.worldtradelaw.net
The Republican Embrace of Security-Based State Capitalism / Socialism
In the context of a House Committee on Rules discussion on Monday of Republican-sponsored H. Res. 1490 – Providing for the condemnation and denouncement of socialism in all its form, and for other pur...
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Politico may be overanalyzing Iceland's vote. As I understand it, the key issue was the potential for intrusion by EU fishermen in Icelandic fishing grounds. Ask the British about how Iceland reacted during the cod wars.
politico.com
EU gets an uncomfortable reality check
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I just saw that the mob boss plans for the U.S. to take a 35% share of the Venezuela company in the deal. I think he has forced more than 30 companies part way into government ownership of the factors of production. Does that make Trump a communist capitalist colonialist? Or just an extortionist?
paulkrugman.substack.com
The Plot to Steal Venezuela’s Oil
A scam that is both vile and deeply stupid
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
It was so much easier to be an American trade negotiator back in the day when a negotiator’s words could be trusted. Future presidents might not act on the whim of the hour, but the world now knows the U.S. can reverse its stance when the other party regains control. Bipartisan trade policy is dead.
thedailyeconomy.org
‘A Deal Written in Pencil’: Tariffs Are Erasing America’s Credibility | The Daily Economy
Canada strengthened its border, removed retaliatory tariffs, and got slapped with tariffs anyway. Global governments are learning that US commitments cannot ...
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
This threatens to kill professional diplomacy by the United States. Professional negotiation has already died.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Isn’t it nice of them to tell us who needs to go once sanity returns to the Foreign Service?
npr.org
Conservative group to award State Department employees who support Trump's agenda
A conservative group is planning cash prizes for State Department employees who fight DEI and help deport migrants.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This is what Trumpist ambassadors think passes as diplomacy. Belgium should PNG him.
politico.eu
Belgium summons US ambassador again over jibe at health minister
This is not the first time the US ambassador has made controversial personal attacks against Belgian politicians.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Not even the orange tyrant knows what victory would look like. His objectives aren’t consistent and change with his whim and audience. The dotard ignores evidence that challenges his wishes. Our military and people are exhausted and have no idea of what might satisfy the decrepit mob boss.
nsl4a.substack.com
“Maybe” Is Not A Strategy
Trump says Iran is in a “so good” situation. Six months into the war, Washington still cannot explain what winning looks like.
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Steve Craven @kekepana.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Give me your tired, your poor … oh, never mind.
news.bloomberglaw.com
Immigrant Visa Interviews Frozen Again by State Department (1)
The Trump administration is pausing visa interviews at US embassies and consulates a week after a court overturned a visa freeze covering 75 countries.
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