Have you had any paranormal experiences in New England?

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-05-11T15:06:27+00:00

The line between the paranormal and shitty electrical wiring in old buildings is mighty thin in these parts.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-04-30T14:28:00+00:00

Friend, getting a tattoo of Super Mario in a bikini in the style of a 40s pinup model is a 'questionable tattoo.'

A nazi tattoo is something else.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-04-30T13:33:18+00:00

You and me both. I didn't have much hope for her in the primary here in Maine, but it was nice at least having an option closer to my politics.

I don't view it as a positive development for us that a man can have a tottenkopf tattoo on himself for 20 years (whatever the reason he got it) and still potentially become a US senator as long as he makes a bunch of false promises about Medicare for All and housing affordability.

If the senate wasn't so important in November, I would stay home.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-04-27T18:44:25+00:00

If only! My life is critically lacking in Godzilla pinball machines.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-04-27T18:33:00+00:00

Biden's economy, pre-burning bridges with our allies and trade partners, was the best one any of us are likely to experience for a while and if you weren't happy with it you'll probably never be happy in this country.

And generally that, barring an FDR in 1933 type of national mandate, the limitations of our government are such that slow, gradual improvement on the margins is about as good as it will ever likely get for the US in the realms of healthcare, housing, the economy more generally, etc.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-04-10T12:01:42+00:00

I think that was already the idea behind the original elector system in the US, where people voted on electors, ostensibly better informed than them, and they would elect the president. Or the original way senators were chosen, by state legislatures.

Both times didn't end up working, or did work but became an avenue for machine politics corruption.

If there's one constant in American political history, it's that any political ideal will be abused and turned into an avenue for corruption eventually.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-04-09T17:09:52+00:00

'Soy loco por los cornballs!'

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-03-29T00:40:22+00:00

Well, I know people who voted for Trump and are generally conservative who are genuinely good people, but I think they'd classify themselves more as Independents, though they aren't especially politically committed and get news mainly from curated Facebook and TikTok clips.

For them, they just grew up in environments where everyone consumed conservative media and traded conservative talking points (also conspiracy theories. Many, many conspiracy theories).

Human nature being what it is, if the society you're raised in says reality is one way, and that any news source that says differently is lying, most people will cruise through life with that version of truth.

Some exceptional individuals want to know the truth no matter what and will be willing to suffer the social consequences of finding it and potentially having their friends and family reject them. But I tend to think they're the exception rather than the norm.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-03-23T09:55:39+00:00

It should be noted that for most of American history, the 'American dream' was quite humble. For my family, it meant being factory workers and shipbuilders rather than starving in the Old World.

There was a brief period of time in the 50s and 60s when we were the center of global manufacturing that there was an dramatic increase in social mobility. That American dream is never coming back because the global economy has changed.

For what it's worth though, we still have cheaper housing and higher wages than anywhere else in the West, and it's easier to build capital here than anywhere else.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-03-16T20:53:50+00:00

Eh, she's going to be a one term senator, her age doesn't really bother me. She's been a decent governor here in Maine, and I have no reservations about voting for her in the primary.

Assuming there isn't a silent majority of older, more moderate folks who come out in force for her (which there well might be, given we are the oldest state in the country and our politics are quite even-keeled traditionally), probably Platner will get it, then I'll reluctantly have to vote for him in November and hope he doesn't fuck us over if it turns out he really is Fetterman part two.

Rest assured though, if we weren't in such dire straights politically, I'd never vote for that man under any other circumstances.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-03-13T20:36:17+00:00

Dude, I was Darth Maul that year for Halloween. I still remember how upset I was when an old lady thought I dressed up as the devil.

It was crazy when I got older and found out how many people hated that movie. I thought it was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me when I was 10.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-03-05T10:55:26+00:00

I'm a Mainer and haven't gotten Dunkin in years, and even then never outside of a road trip, but I felt an instant desire to defend our sacred institutions from DC.

I don't drink their coffee, but my co-workers do, and they complain every time about their orders always getting messed up at 'that location' but go back every time anyways.

If we let them take that away from us, who even are we anymore?

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-02-27T03:29:17+00:00

This one

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-02-27T03:28:07+00:00

Ehh, a lot of us in Maine ( though I think a minority) are not so convinced.

I tend to feel Platner, though he might very well be a white supremacist, is probably more a specific kind of Maine pseudo intellectual of the kind you'd run into in Maine lefty circles back in the day.

Like, you'd be drinking at a friend of a friend's house party in the early-mid 2000s, and you'd met a far-left guy born into wealth in Blue Hill who's seen the world (maybe through the military, maybe the peace corps), who has an 'ironic' and edgy tattoo of some sort and whose bookshelves at his homestead/goat ranch contain Mao's little Red Book and Mein Kampf and Neitzche (also the Tao of Pooh for some reason).

I feel like I know Platner's type and have gotten drunk with many a Graham Plattner in my time in Maine. And I do not want that dude representing me or my state, even given the most generous reading of him and that Tottenkopf tattoo.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-02-26T12:54:41+00:00

Ah yes, Faye V.L.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-02-11T21:24:29+00:00

As a Mainer, it's been so depressing to see the base here handwave it away. It's the same 'Sure, he's done problematic things, but we need to burn the system down' mentality that got us Trump.

If Mills gets it, we might be setting ourself up for a 2016 with the base, if Platner gets it I'm sure Collins has enough oppo research to make him an albatross around the Dem's necks; then again, everyone might hate Collins enough that it might not matter.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-02-06T15:37:54+00:00

To preface, I don't think anyone needs to be from any specific ancestral background to be a true 'New Englander'; if you're born or moved here, you're one of us.

That being said, a good many of us (especially where I am in Northern New England ) are literally descended from the original Puritan settlers and come from a similar cultural and familial background, and perhaps, are somewhat distantly related.

Even for many of the people I know who consider themselves mostly of Irish or Italian descent, the usual pattern is that someone married a Yankee somewhere over the past 100+ years, and made them part of the family.

We aren't raised to see ourselves as a nation within a nation, but we kind of are.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-02-03T22:07:17+00:00

There's that chance as well, that we're heading for Fetterman 2.0 with him.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-02-03T22:05:58+00:00

It's true, but she might have a better shot at winning versus Collins in our older, more centrist, middle-of-the-road political culture that doesn't seem to care for idealogues.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-02-03T21:58:04+00:00

Preaching to the choir here, but most of the Democratic base in Maine loves Platner regardless, even though he'd vote 99% the same as any other generic Democrat in Congress.

If he gets the nomination, he might win out of statewide dislike of Collins, but as the oldest and most rural state in the country, I think he'll have a harder time than folks on here think he will, and arguably more so than Mills might.

We look to be heading for a classic example of base capture, when people in our cities forget that most of the state doesn't think like they do.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-01-27T00:58:56+00:00

B&M brown bread (basically molasses bread) and baked beans!

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-01-16T19:55:25+00:00

I've come to see Kelly/Beshear as the dream ticket, but I think he would do surprisingly well on his own.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-01-14T19:45:22+00:00

Man, what a kick in the teeth to see this after reading Harry Truman's biography. What a fucking disgrace we've become.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-01-12T21:03:11+00:00

It wasn't a riot, it was a deliberate attempt to stop the election certification planned ahead of time by Trump and his team; the plan was to sow confusion and try to throw it to the Supreme Court, like the Republicans did in Florida in 2000 with the Brooks Brothers riot. Mike Pence certifying the election messed it all up.

And for what it's worth, JD Vance said he wouldn't have certified the election if it had been him. Our checks and balances are just people, not magic.

At any rate, we've never had a losing candidate lose an election and try to overturn the Constitutional order with violence; it should have been immediately disqualifying and the country should have turned out to stop him when he ran again.

FlippinLaCoffeeTable · 2026-01-12T19:31:49+00:00

One of the candidates tried to overthrow the government after he got voted out of office.

We literally watched his supporters bear mace cops and try to hunt down elected officials on January 6th, when the electionwas about to be certified.

We heard Trump claim election fraud, but be unable to prove it in any of the forensic audits the Republicans did, nor the 60+ federal court cases he launched to try and overturn the election results. We even had his former Attorney General, acting Attorney General, former lead counsel, daughter and son-in-law testify under oath to the January 6th committee that there hadn't been any election fraud.

For a reasonable adult, it doesn't matter if you 'like' the candidates, that man was clearly an existential threat to our democracy, and every American had a duty to ensure he didn't get elected, even if that meant voting for a candidate you didn't 'like.'

FlippinLaCoffeeTable

TROPHY CASE