Profile avatar
mahabarbara.bsky.social
Zen student and history/politics nerd. Author of The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World (Shambhala, 2019). My personal blog is The Mahablog (mahablog.com), and I write for Patheos as The Religious History Nerd.
142 posts 798 followers 115 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
Posts 26 Comments 24

Trump really is trying to rule as a king; Charles I, to be precise. If you know British history, you might remember things didn't turn out well for Charles I. reason.com/volokh/2025/...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

If any journalists see this -- if you write about Juneteenth this year, please get the history right for a change. Slavery didn't end completely in the U.S. until about 5 months after the first Juneteenth. This explains how that happened. www.patheos.com/blogs/therel...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The Minnesota shooting story is being told very, very differently in right-wing media than in, well, anywhere else. www.mahablog.com/2025/06/15/w...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Who knew achieving world peace was actually hard? www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/u...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

BREAKING: SENATOR PADILLA HANDCUFFED AND THROWN TO THE GROUND AFTER BEING FORCIBLY REMOVED FROM PRESS CONFERENCE.

submitted 7 days ago • 427 comments

The Regine has arrested a U.S. senator for daring to talk back to Noem. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/u...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

I agree with Oliver Willis. Every time some new Trump outrage hits the news, somebody will always declare that it's "just a distraction" from the last outrage. Which, oddly, was a "distraction" from the one before that. www.oliverexplains.com/p/there-are-...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Sending a couple thousand National Guard into Los Angeles is just a first step. Trump won't stop until he has absolute control of California and every other city and state that poses a threat to his authority. www.mahablog.com/2025/06/09/w...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

ICE is a much greater threat to this country than illegal immigrants. The current administration ia by far the greatest threat this country faces. The problem is not st our borders. It is in the White House.

submitted 12 days ago • 348 comments

“Just to be clear, the National Guard has not been deployed in the City of Los Angeles.” -- LA Mayor Karen Bass The @us.theguardian.com is spot on with this fact checking in the story & headline. Other news outlets should follow this lead: www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

submitted 11 days ago • 20 comments

"Schrader’s resignation was prompted by concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons, the sources said." abcnews.go.com/Politics/liv...

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Opposing Andrew Cuomo is a non-negotiable for our membership. In light of today’s news that Jessica Ramos has endorsed Cuomo, our New York City CAP Council immediately voted to unendorse her on our ballots. @uawregion9a.bsky.social region9a.uaw.org/news/NYCMayo...

submitted 13 days ago • 35 comments

It's likely there will be a ton of religion-in-public-school cases headed to the Supreme Court in the next couple of years. We're on the edge of losing separation of church and state. We dodged a bullet with the Catholic charter school case, but just barely. www.patheos.com/blogs/therel...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

I’m on my stoop again with a “don’t vote for Cuomo” message. And Rank @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social number 1, and rank up to five total candidates. Voters are starting to dial in as this race begins to get real. Let’s go!

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

From calling Leonard Leo a "sleazebag" to the War on Harvard to revoking Chinese students' visas because Trump is angry with China over something, here is a roundup of the latest Trump Tantrum news. www.mahablog.com/2025/05/30/t...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Trump still has a lot of options. www.mahablog.com/2025/05/29/w...

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

I'm reading that this morning a federal judge in Boston put a temporary restraining order on Trump's ban on foreign students at Harvard. And now I see he's messing with the Crown Princess of Belgium. www.reuters.com/world/future...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Can we have a moratorium on posting quotes attributed to Pope Leo XIV until all the people generating fake quotes get bored and move on to something else? Please? Yes, the one in the image is fake. There are deepfake videos out there, too. www.catholicherald.com/article/glob...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Succinctly states where we are and what's happening. These three things, in addition to doing much else, are the sheet anchors of American wealth and power.

submitted 28 days ago • 58 comments

IThis has got to stop. CE Arrests Mississippi Father at His Citizenship Hearing, Threatening Deportation www.mississippifreepress.org/ice-arrests-...

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

You can leave a comment on RFK the Lesser's idiot plan to restrict covid vaccines here. Do it before the window closes. www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

The behemoth "big, beautiful bill" still hasn't made it out of the House. Why I think it may not ever get to the finish line. www.mahablog.com/2025/05/21/t...

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

(quote) If Republicans pass their tax and spending megabill, the record will arrive even sooner — putting America’s debt at more than 113 percent of the size of its entire economy. (end quote) Explore this gift article from The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/u...

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

I'm saying Trump is John Robert's monster. But nobody helped set this crisis up better than the Supreme Court, which could have stopped him but instead sat on its hands and eventually gave him a get-out-of-jail-free card. www.mahablog.com/2025/05/18/j...

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

Pope Leo XIV named himself for Pope Leo XIII, who was an interesting guy and also a surprise choice for Pope. www.patheos.com/blogs/therel...

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

Why I'm done with Trump's BS several times over. As you musst be, too. www.mahablog.com/2025/05/02/t...

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments