CREDIT: AP/MICHAEL DYWER.
Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) has been mouthing off, a lot. He has frothed about every group he doesn’t like, and it seems if you aren’t a hetero christian white man, you’re in one of the hated groups. Mr. LePage has a particular hatred of anyone who is not verifiably pasty white, and he doesn’t seem to care who knows it, either. He is an ardent Trump fan, which I’m sure is no surprise. In his latest screed, Mr. LePage identifies the enemy: People of Colour, and what you do to the enemy: you shoot them.
In a Friday press conference following his homophobic remarks about a state lawmaker, Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) called people of color and people of Hispanic origin “the enemy” and implied they should be shot.
“A bad guy is a bad guy. I don’t care what color he is. When you go to war, if you know the enemy, the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, you shoot at red,” he said. “You shoot the enemy. You try to identify the enemy. And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in are people of color or people of Hispanic origin.”
The governor has offered a veritable potpourri of racist and homophobic remarks over the years. In his voicemail to state Rep. Drew Gattine (D) on Thursday, in an apparent attempt to convince people that he is not a racist, he said, “I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-bitch, socialist cocksucker.”
Oh, yes, helping black people, but you just can’t stand having them in your pristine state of Maine. I’d be willing to bet your idea of help is not the same as mine.
On Wednesday, he called Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen Muslim soldier, a “con artist.” During a town hall on that same day, he said nearly all of Maine’s drug dealers are black or Hispanic. “I don’t ask them to come to Maine (to) sell their poison, but they come,” he said. “And I will tell you, that 90 percent-plus of those pictures in my book — and it’s a three-ring binder — are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Connecticut, the Bronx and Brooklyn.”
LePage grabbed national headlines earlier this year when he said men named “Smoothie, D-Money, and Shifty” were dealing drugs in Maine. He added, “Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue that we’ve got to deal with down the road. We’re going to make them very severe penalties.”
Among his other comments, he told the NAACP to “kiss my butt,” accused asylum seekers of bringing the “ziki fly,” and told the president to “go to hell.” LePage is an enthusiastic supporter of the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump.
It’s not just the presidential vote that’s important. It’s equally important to usher these asses who run on bigotry and stereotypes out of office, too.
Via Think Progress.
He’s talking about guys wearing badges and carrying guns, I assume.
Right?
Wait, so, he’s saying brown cops don’t matter?
It’s so fucking complicated!?!!?!?!?! Just tell me who to shoot.
Shoot all of Them, Marcus, all of Them.
I’m pretty confident in saying that LePage is the kind of idiot who would look at a [male] brown cop and say “boy, you’re a credit to your race.”
Caine@#5:
Oh, great, that’d make any self-respecting cop (an oxymoron) shoot themself.
chigau@#3: can’t I just shoot this hospital marked with a red cross? it’s visible.
If it makes you feel any better (it doesn’t me), he is term-limited.
He was elected on a plurality (twice) once because an independent wouldn’t drop out, and once because a democrat wouldn’t.
Marcus
Drones. Think drones.
Target the red cross, one big boom. Where’s the fun?
Drones are more like a video game.
One at a time… whites of their eyes…
Funfunfun!
On the bright side, it’s really helpful when assholes declare themselves that openly.
I want all my foes to be as clearly delineated as Frank N Furter in “Rocky Horror.”
… and, as delicious
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pMRl55U0eDw
hot patootie
Good thing racism is over. You’ll never see a white supremacist elected to an executive office of considerable power. Those days are gone thanks to white people’s friend Dr. King.
I listened to the voicemail recording yesterday. It was so weird I laughed until I thought ‘and this is from a governor’. A sitting governor…wow. So, I’ve never been to Maine & don’t know about its politics -- so any Mainers (Mainiacs?) out there, I am curious -- is it possible to recall a governor? Have folks talked about this but for whatever reason, political and/or financial it isn’t likely to happen?
How the fuck is that possible.
I know, I’m probably spoiled, but in Germany politicians had to resign over much less….
Two things struck me recently as related to LePage.
1. These guys constantly claim that guns aren’t the problem, it’s what bad people do with guns that is the problem. That is to say, you cannot and should not blame the gun manufacturer or salesmen for the tragedies involving guns. However, on the topic of drugs, it isn’t what people do to themselves with drugs, but rather the Negro’s and Mexicans selling the drugs to the people wanting the drugs that are the problem.
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. But drugs kill people, not people using drugs.
2. Lepage’s blistering, blatant, dangerous, vile white supremacy is at such a level that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone powerless and disadvantaged in Maine took him to be a legitimate threat to their life and the life of their children and tried to do something about it.
I mean, especially because he’s putting out ideas about thing like gun duels. where he says he’d love to shoot another legislator between the eyes. He’s courting stochastic terrorism with his imagery and threats -- but I don’t think some people realize that goes both ways. As one riles up their followers with violent imagery and threats, those who are being rallied against might also be moved to action.
tkreacher @ 16:
I was shocked, reading what he’s been saying all over the place. It’s all so ugly, so vile, and very violent. Yet these bigots always seem to be so surprised if that violence comes home to roost. They think it’s fine to talk and talk and talk, and whip up other bigots, but somehow, it never occurs to them that someone along the line might take serious exception to all that shit.
tkreacher@#16:
he says he’d love to shoot another legislator between the eyes
So did Hamilton. For some reason blustering idiots always assume things will work out the way they imagine them.
Caine #17
Same. Though by now we probably shouldn’t be. Still though, I am.
Marcus Ranum #18
Heh. Indeed.
Giliell, #15
In America, open xenophobia and incitement to violence against minorities gets you top spot in a major party’s election run.