Maineweek Madness: Bad Tweets, Bears, and Tucker Carlson
Latest

I’ve always read a lot of Maine news. These days, I read it a lot more. For a largely rural state in a time when most outlets have been decimated or entirely replaced by syndicated garbage, the area has a robust press and an impressive network of hyper-local blogs. This is good for a number of reasons—sure, a pair of daily papers competing against each other for statehouse scoops is good for democracy and civic engagement. But you also get dogged reporting on, like, the torturous saga of the vaping lobster queen, a story for which I will remain grateful until the end of my days.
It was recently suggested by a well-meaning editor that I monetize the labor I’m already doing in sending her local Maine items all day. So here is a semi-regular blog about things going on in one very good state.
Do you recall Paul LePage, the rotund racist of Maine? Perhaps you’d recognize him as the guy who blamed state drug use on guys named “Shifty” and “D-money” driving up from New York to impregnate white girls, or as the politician who spent $22,000 of taxpayer money at a Trump hotel. Having tried and failed to secure a post in the Trump White House after finishing his second term, LePage briefly retreated to Florida, where he appears to have spent most of his time fuming and dialing into radio shows to talk shit about current governor Janet Mills. In late April, LePage made good on the hints he’d been dropping about running again, announcing on the Howie Carr show that he would bid for a third term in 2022.
And, as of this week, LePage has been spotted back in-state, attending an event at Augusta’s state house organized to protest the state’s stay-at-home orders. During brief remarks delivered from a great distance over cellphone, the former governor called the lockdown orders “unconstitutional” and criticized the current governor for her 14-day quarantine order for visitors out-of-state.
For the duration of the rally, where 500 people had gathered, LePage remained 40 feet from the crowd and stayed safely inside his Lexus with Florida plates.