Ray Mikell
raymikell.bsky.social
Ray Mikell
@raymikell.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, Political Science, Jackson State University, MS. Interested most in urban politics and policy, state and local govt. Longtime photo person. Pop culture enthusiast of sorts.
Yes, "1999" was released that year, but I only got deeply into it later. This one I still appreciate as much now as at any time, however. "Hello Baton Rouge. Won't you turn your radio down?"
November 17, 2025 at 6:15 PM
I didn’t think that would have happened either. I do wonder if anyone made sure his book idea was killed, though. (She didn’t assassinate or murder anyone, but I thought about that line in the Nuzzi book & article and publishing ethics context yesterday.)
Yes! Immediately after we finished watching it, my husband there is no way Lucretia went to see Guiteau before he was executed and I replied absolutely.

We both wished it had been two episodes longer, so they could have gone into the politics in more detail.

Looking forward to reading the book.
November 15, 2025 at 6:20 PM
I'm thinking that we need an entirely new class of people at the top. Or no top until the person-as-brand era is figured out.
what the actual fuck
November 14, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Ray Mikell
look as someone who can be incapacitated for weeks by the fear that I put the wrong number of exclamation points into an email this has been a fascinating glimpse into a some brains that work extremely! differently! from! mine!
November 13, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Ray Mikell
If the Democrats had a hair on their ass they would start a nationwide campaign where they had commercials showing all the Republicans convicted of sex scandals plus the emails with they’re not like us playing in the background.
November 13, 2025 at 2:05 PM
In the Deep South, there are so many beard trim-oriented barber shops that are into marketing ”manliness” and are the Trumpiest places imaginable.
Hegseth: "We don't need to be a military of beardos anymore. Do you know how many troops claim to be Nordic Pagan? No, suddenly it's become this real fake religious affiliation inside the Pentagon where troops came to be Nordic Pagan so they can grow a beard and nobody challenges them on it."
November 12, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Apple Music Essentials?
Trying to describe a comprehensive exam bib to a doctoral student as a Greatest Hits album is dating me, isn't it

#AcademicSky
November 11, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Is he going to send me the $29,000 without-insurance rate for infusion meds I need? Will it cover an MRI? What if I need rehab (for walking, not the Malibu luxury kind)? Can I just call the Oval Office when I need anything?
Trump: "We want a healthcare system where we pay the money to the people instead of the insurance companies. We're gonna be working on that very hard over the next short period of time. Where the people get the money. We're talking about trillions and trillions of dollars."
November 10, 2025 at 9:10 PM
This is not just impossibly racist and offensive to human decency, but petty. And I grew up and live in Mississippi.
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 10, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Not inaccurate
I don't know what the Senate is going to do. But if they do in fact fold in exchange for nothing, they will be living up to past performance. To expect the Senate to carry out the will of the American people is to misunderstand why it was created in the first place.
November 10, 2025 at 4:23 AM
I loved reading about the less-heralded Garfield assassination in Sarah Vowell's "Assassination Vacation," wherein she described Guiteau as the only person in a free love cult who couldn't get laid.

I am part of the target demographic for this series. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassi...
November 7, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Key. Everybody go out and have a truckload of kids, like Dr. Oz and JD have gone on about. We love children!
HAPPENING NOW: Judge McConnell is sharply rebuking the Trump administration for what he said was defying his order to make full SNAP payments by Nov. 5. He has ordered USDA to make the *full* payment to states by tomorrow.
November 6, 2025 at 11:14 PM
The worst offender: Facebook. It’s put MS forum posts galore into my feed lately, and nearly all have responses filled with info about supposed miracle cures and people urging others to stop taking medication, etc.
i have a long essay in my drafts that i did over the last week or so about having covid and proceeding to, in a state of mental impairment, believe that i had 50 rare diseases and put like 10 million supplements in my body because of stuff i read online but i think it would get me skinned alive
November 6, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Everything I’ve seen or read about this event is just impossibly gross. Glad there was a counter-event on campus, but …
JD Vance, Erika Kirk rally University of Mississippi crowd with call for conservative Christian revival

Organizers estimated the crowd at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday for a Turning Point USA event featuring Vice President JD Vance and Erika Kirk, widow of the slain Charlie Kirk, at…
JD Vance, Erika Kirk rally University of Mississippi crowd with call for conservative Christian revival
Organizers estimated the crowd at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday for a Turning Point USA event featuring Vice President JD Vance and Erika Kirk, widow of the slain Charlie Kirk, at 10,000.
mississippitoday.org
October 31, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Maybe you could try doing a customer survey delivered by email? Everyone loves those.
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works and let me know if you have any questions! 🤗
October 29, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Ray Mikell
Dressing up like a Tylenol©️ Extra Strength Rapid Release Gel™️ and running around the Capitol grounds like a spectre to scare off the maga.

It’s like sage but not appropriative.
October 28, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Every time I hear the name “Diego Pavia,” that of Vandy’s star QB, I think of Baby Diego from “Children of Men.” (Political cinema deep cut.)
October 25, 2025 at 10:53 PM
It’s not AI. It’s Paris. I wanted to be one of the studiedly casual-looking middle-aged dudes I saw playing “Get Lucky” at May’s Taste of Paris, though. That, or the 60s-ish man with a cane and orange-red wide-brimmed hat, beaten up just so, spotted at an art deco theater’s Orson Welles film fest.
It’s rare for me to say this about a NYTimes article, but I love everything about this story. And that photo. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/s...
Is This Dapper Man Going to Crack the Louvre Heist Case?
www.nytimes.com
October 24, 2025 at 12:11 AM
A haunted house for academics, but it involves late notice of a Zoom committee meeting with only one agenda item. Then people talk about that item for 25 minutes. But you can’t vote on the item since there’s not a quorum. Chair opts to send out a members’ poll by email instead.
October 23, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Many miles away, something crawls to the surface of a dark Scottish loch.
WOW: The White House says the president's MAIN PRIORITY is his BALLROOM. SNAP is ending. Subsidies for health care are gong to double and in some instances quadruple plan premiums. The government is shut down. The cost of living is through the roof. And his priority is his ballroom.
October 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by Ray Mikell
The Democrats need to get a hell of a lot of cameras on the White House and plaster the photos everywhere. It's not just the brazen symbol of a megalomaniac destroying national heritage; it's happening during a government shutdown when ordinary people aren't getting paid. Make every American see it.
October 20, 2025 at 7:23 PM
I am so in favor of this. All the focus on blah-blah happening while so-and-so was prez downplays the central constitutional role of Congress and its long ever-worsening, but now complete, abdication of its formidable power.
So the next march needs to be for Congress to do its job- Impeach him, stop impoundment, open the damn government, and show that the rule of law is for everyone.

This should also be the start of long term protests and sit outs in front of Congress and local Republicans/GOP offices.
October 20, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Despite my distaste for Bezos, I've kept an Amazon Echo Dot around. One reason? Mobility issues that get weirder at night, making turning on lights via voice command highly useful. Last night, though, I was glad to have a long phone cord and a powerful tactical flashlight within arm's reach.
October 20, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Proposal: Suspend the use of “resilient” in sports coverage, also disaster recovery, political coverage, basically anything. What does it even mean?
October 18, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Good to read about this. I'll check in. But oh man, I am so not Zoom fan. If this were a class, I'd want a whiteboard video option. (Bad memories of COVID era feedback-a-paolloza meetings.)
#NoKings disability justice zoom for folks who can’t attend in the streets.
We also understand that not everyone feels comfortable registering for events right now, and that's okay. Feel free to join the Zoom here:

us06web.zoom.us/j/8467741742...

7/9
October 18, 2025 at 5:03 PM