This Month In History,

Carson McCullers’s debut novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, is published.

On June 4, 1940, the day her debut novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was published, 23-year-old Carson McCullers was alone in New York City. She’d come with her husband to promote the book, but he was off sailing with a friend. “She knew almost no one in New York except the kindly older woman acquaintance who had found her the room,” writes Mary V. Dearborn.

“She was nearly penniless, but she had to scrape together enough money to buy something to wear to a meeting with her editor the next week. June 4 was a pause. On one side were Carson’s years growing up in provincial Columbus, Georgia, and the succession of Southern towns to which her husband’s job had called them. On the other side, she assumed, would be the exciting life of an author, living glamorously in New York City, meeting the writers, artists, and musicians who had peopled her fantasies.”

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was hotly anticipated, despite—or because of—its strangeness. “It did not fit any of the accepted and expected categories of mainstream fiction,” Dearborn explains. “It was neither a love story nor a bildungsroman, it did not have characters whom readers could recognize as like themselves, it did not have a happy ending, and it did not have a single strong narrative line.” It was a book about misfits, written by a misfit. But, importantly, McCullers was a young misfit, and publishing has always loved nothing better than a wunderkind. “Readers were flabbergasted to learn that this tour de force was the work of someone so young and, despite her gender-ambiguous name, a woman,” writes Dearborn. “It was hard to believe she knew so much about the ‘lonely hearts’ of others, said one critic. She seemed sui generis, unique, and as it turned out, as odd as some of her characters.” Richard Wright compared her favorably to William Faulkner and Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway, and wrote that “whether you will want to read the book depends upon the extent to which you value the experience of discovering the stale and familiar terms of everyday life bathed in a rich and strange meaning, devoid of pettiness and sentimentality.” A lot of people wanted to read it. The novel became a bestseller, and McCullers, at least for a time, was offered entry into the artist’s life of her dreams. “I became an established literary figure overnight and I was much too young to understand what happened to me or the responsibility it entailed,” she said later. “I was a bit of a holy terror.” It’s hard to hold it against her, though. By the age of 30 she would have had two major strokes; she died much too young, at 50, after a brain hemorrhage, leaving behind years of literary potential along with her enduring classics.

Read an excerpt of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter here.

Cataloguing Carson McCullers’ Clothes: Long Coats, Vests, and Gender Fluidity

Jenn Shapland on What She Found in the Writer’s Archives

(click through on here or the title/hyperlink just above to read more)

Exclusive: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Explains the Mission Behind Housing Initiative to Help Black and Brown Families

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke exclusively to The Root about “Block by Block,” which targets Black and brown communities most impacted by housing disparities.

By Phenix S Halley Published May 29, 2026

Since New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stepped into office in January, he’s unveiled ambitious policies that aim to address systemic issues that many leaders before him often neglected. Now, his administration has launched a new “Block by Block” housing plan to confront the city’s deep racial inequities in housing.

The proposal focuses heavily on the Bronx, where Black residents disproportionately face unsafe buildings, displacement, and limited affordable housing access. Mamdani argues the housing crisis is inseparable from systemic racism, pledging stronger tenant protections, aggressive action against negligent landlords, and major investments in affordable housing. He spoke with us in an exclusive interview about why “Block by Block” matters and why it’s time for political leaders to address the elephant in the room: protecting and uplifting Black and other disenfranchised groups through real policy.

The Root: During your 2025 campaign, some Black voters voiced concerns that they wouldn’t be a priority. Although “Block by Block” addresses some of those concerns, targeted at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and Black communities in the Bronx, how do you continue to ensure the most disenfranchised people have direct access and remain a priority?

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: I think the cost-of-living crisis is the most pressing issue in our city. And it is a crisis that every New Yorker faces. It’s also a crisis that has not been borne evenly across the city. Black New Yorkers have faced such pressure to afford life in this city that we have seen manifest in 200,000 Black New Yorkers being pushed out of the city, the population of Black children and teenagers declining by 19% over a recent period of time. It is incumbent upon us, if we want to fight to continue to preserve “the gorgeous mosaic,” as [former Mayor] David Dinkins once described our city as, to invest in everything that we can to make this city more affordable.

“Block by Block” is a vision to not only preserve the little affordability that we have in this city, but also hold on to that affordability to ensure that it becomes a reality for far more New Yorkers. We know that public housing is one of the few places where working-class New Yorkers can find a way to make ends meet in the city, yet it’s one of the few places that has been left out of any conversation around housing for decades. And that’s why we’ve made the decision to invest $5.6 billion into public housing, which is the largest investment any mayor has made in decades, so that we can actually ensure that we not only continue to provide this kind of affordability, but that it comes with a habitability as well, so that New Yorkers are not forced to accept conditions that frankly go beyond what any person should have to agree to.

The Root: If you can do this in 100 days, why do you think past mayors and other political leaders across the U.S. haven’t addressed disparities in housing on a larger scale? Are there any risks involved with prioritizing people of color?

Mayor Mamdani: I’ll give you an example of public housing: The Reagan administration made sweeping cuts to public housing. It began a chapter in our city and our country’s history of disinvesting in one of the most critical ways for working-class people to afford to live in the cities they help build.

Too often, in our politics, we’ve cited the immense cost as a justification for inaction. We have said, “Well, NYCHA has a capital backlog of about $80 billion; therefore, anything is just a drop in the bucket. So we are going to continue to rely on the federal government to take the lead here. We know full well that Republican administrations and Democratic administrations have not addressed this issue, that waiting is not an answer. And so we have decided to take the lead ourselves and show that the city is committed to this in a way that goes beyond the rhetoric of past administrations and starts to translate that into a new reality for current NYCHA residents.

The Root: Outside of “Block by Block,” what are you most proud of in the first 100 days of your administration?

Mayor Mamdani: I am most proud of our vision for Universal Childcare.  We delivered more than $1 billion, thanks to a partnership with Governor [ Kathy] Hochul. And that is money that allowed us to add 2,000 additional seats for childcare for three-year-olds and, now for the first time in New York City history, free childcare for two-year-olds.  And the reason I’m most proud of this is that in New York City, childcare costs $20,000 per child, and that’s considered a good deal. And when we deliver universal and high-quality childcare at no cost to families across the city, it transforms their ability to build a life here, and that’s exactly what we want to be doing.

Clay Jones, And More!

https://inthesetimes.com/article/new-comics-left-wing-oligarchy-strike-trump-union

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/prophecy

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/debunking

Trump 250

The sycophants in the Treasury Department are trying to make a $250 bill with Trump’s face on it

Clay Jones

US law states that no living president can appear on currency. Yet, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is preparing for Congress to change that and is plowing ahead with plans to create a $250 bill featuring Donald Trump’s face for the 250th anniversary of the country.

Bessent said, “It’s all in the hands of… Capitol Hill. We prepared things in advance… but we will stick to the law.”

For the sycophants that make up the Trump regime, everything is always Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. They gotta put his name on this, put his face on that, repeat, rinse, and repeat. It is starting to get weird. Soon, all US currency will feature Donald Trump’s signature.

Bessent added that he didn’t think there was anything “untoward” about having the president who was in office during the country’s 250th anniversary appear on the bill. In this case, “untoward” means creepy. (snip-MORE)

It Is June-

June Means PRIDE!

Pride Month 2026

HISTORY.com Editors

Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

Pride Month is an annual celebration of the many contributions made by the LGBTQ+ community to history, society and cultures worldwide. In most places, Pride is celebrated throughout the month of June each year in commemoration of its roots in the Stonewall Riots of June 1969. However, in some areas—especially in the Southern Hemisphere—pride events occur at other times of the year.

Origins of Pride Month

The roots of the gay rights movement go back to the early 1900s, when a handful of individuals in North America and Europe created gay and lesbian organizations such as the the Society for Human Rights, founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago in the 1920s.

Following World War II, a small number of groups like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis published gay- and lesbian-positive newsletters and grew more vocal in demanding recognition for, and protesting discrimination against, gays and lesbians. In 1966, for example, members of the Mattachine Society held a “sip-in” protest at Julius, a bar in New York City, where they demanded drinks after announcing that they were gay, in violation of local laws against serving alcohol to gays and lesbians.

Despite some progress in the postwar era, basic civil rights were largely denied to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people—until one night in June, 1969, when the gay rights movement took a furious step forward with a series of violent riots in New York City.

Stonewall Riots

https://www.history.com/articles/pride-month (this is one of those videos embedded on the page, beneath is a bit about it, then more about the riots. Go see the video, if you like!)

How the Stonewall Riots Sparked a Movement

The 1969 Stonewall Inn Riots sparked the beginning of the gay rights movement in America. Learn how.

As was common practice in many cities, the New York Police Department would occasionally raid bars and restaurants where gays and lesbians were known to gather. This occurred on June 28, 1969, when the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan.

When the police aggressively dragged patrons and employees out of the bar, several people fought back against the NYPD, and a growing crowd of angry locals gathered in the streets. The confrontations quickly escalated and sparked six days of protests and violent clashes with the NYPD outside the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street and throughout the neighborhood.

By the time the Stonewall Riots ended on July 2, 1969, the gay rights movement went from being a fringe issue largely ignored by politicians and the media to front-page news worldwide.

(snip-here ends our history.com lesson for today)

Political cartoons / memes / and news I want to share. 6-1-2026

“If you won’t tell me what’s bothering you, at least don’t distort your face so much that I really, really want to know.”

The progressive comic about Trump's lunacy causing high gas prices.

“Hang on—it’s Colbert’s last episode.”

https://www.tumblr.com/whatareyoureallyafraidof/818093373099524096/iamjacofalltrades-gdirtydime19-damn-i

“And, as you head out into the world, your fresh, meaty torsos will be ripped apart and roasted to feed your new alien overlords—wait, why are you all booing?”

Tom Steyer Isn’t F****** Around

I am really becomeing in favor of this person for governor. I love how he talks about trans kids and how he wants them to feel included in society. He said that because of the risk of suicide and self harm if these children are excluded he won’t do that to them. He is not giving an inch on trans issues. As for advantages or not as Emma and Sam discuss there is a basket ball player so tall that he can stand on his toes and put the ball in the net. Is that an unfair advantage? Hugs

Iowans Be Aware, and Beware-

Co-founder of Wichita private school contending for Iowa GOP’s gubernatorial nomination

Iowa Democratic Party raises red flag about dozens of Zach Lahn’s flights to Kansas

By:Tim Carpenter-May 29, 2026

TOPEKA — Private school founder, farmer and businessman Zach Lahn is running an insurgent Republican campaign for governor in Iowa.

The former Kansan has labeled this outsider bid as an “Iowa First” campaign. He’s opposed abortion and high taxes, but defended gun rights, school vouchers and religious freedom. He told Iowa voters he admired President Donald Trump’s tenacious fight against the political establishment.

“I told my wife many times, if I ever ran for anything, the only thing I’d ever want to run for was governor,” Lahn said.

Lahn grew up near Sioux City, Iowa, graduated from University of Colorado in Boulder, worked for Montana and Colorado congressmen, served as Montana director of Americans for Prosperity and as an AFP fundraiser, and bought a Belle Plaine, Iowa, farm previously owned by relatives. He launched an unorthodox school in Wichita and voted in Kansas elections in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 cycles.

Lahn’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment about why he chose to run for governor in Iowa rather than Kansas or questions raised by the Iowa Democratic Party about his close ties to Kansas and decision in 2024 to transfer his voter registration to Iowa.

Lahn has stood out among Iowa’s GOP gubernatorial candidates by denouncing lobbyists, corporations and organizations with outsized influence on politics. He’s not been shy about criticizing Democrats and Republicans responsible for blocking public policy reform.

“I’m fighting the ‘Uni-party.’ Both sides have been bought off in many ways,” he said.

Lahn is on the Tuesday primary ballot with U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, state Rep. Eddie Andrews, former state Rep. Brad Sherman and former Iowa Department of Administrative Services director Adam Steen. The Democratic nominee will be Iowa state Auditor Rob Sand, who is running unopposed.

For the first time since 2006, an incumbent Iowa governor won’t be on the ballot. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, with one of the lowest approval ratings in the country, didn’t seek reelection.

Populist approach

Michael Smith, a political science professor at Emporia State University, said old-school political theory dictated gubernatorial candidates had to be rooted in a state’s political infrastructure and local community life to be relevant. That changed as Trump assumed control of GOP politics and showed how firebrand conservatives, including those without prior experience in public office, might find a lane to run, he said.

“It’s all different now,” said Smith, who indicated Lahn could be a beneficiary of that shift. “He’s trying to be his own kind of populist.”

Lahn created momentum for his candidacy by loaning the campaign $2 million and using that cash to fill the airwaves with television advertising.

After working for Americans for Prosperity, an advocacy group associated with founders of Koch Industries, Lahn moved to Wichita to launch the unconventional private school named Wonder. The pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade school opened in 2018 on the campus of Wichita State University. It was financed by Chase Koch, the son of billionaire Charles Koch, and Chase Koch’s wife at the time, Annie Koch.

Annie Koch and Lahn subsequently divorced their spouses and were married. They have seven children in a blended family and the kids have been featured in campaign materials.

Kansas voter registration records show Zach Lahn voted in Kansas with a provisional ballot in November 2018, in-person at a Sedgwick County polling place in November 2020 and with an advance ballot in the August 2022 primary. Zach Lahn registered to vote in Iowa on Oct. 17, 2024. Transferring his registration at that time allowed him to meet the state’s two-year residency requirement for a run for governor in 2026.

Jennifer Konfrst, a professor of journalism and strategic political communication at Drake University in Des Moines, said there was potential for Lahn’s “Iowa First” campaign slogan to come across as disingenuous among voters aware of his lengthy presence in Kansas. Iowa voters appreciate the life history of candidates, she said, but some dig deeper into whether a candidate’s staff came from Iowa or Washington, D.C.

“Being from here matters,” said Konfrst, a Democratic member of the Iowa House not seeking reelection. “It’s not unimportant that somebody who wants to be governor of Iowa isn’t from here.”

Kansas connections

In July 2024, according to Sedgwick County’s register of deeds, Annie Lahn purchased a home in Kechi near Wichita and declared on mortgage documents it was her primary residence. One year after acquiring the property, Zach and Annie Lahn sold the home to an LLC for $1.

Business records filed with the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office identified the LLC’s “authorized person” as Wichita resident Mikaela Ledbetter, who made a modest donation in December 2025 to Zach Lahn’s campaign for governor.

Less than two weeks after the transaction in July 2025, Annie Lahn registered to vote in Belle Plaine, Iowa. Zach Lahn and his previous wife, Lauren, had purchased that Belle Plaine homestead in 2014.

The Des Moines Register reported in April that Zach Lahn flew from Iowa to Wichita in his personal airplane 37 times since Oct. 1, 2025. Zach Lahn told the Register the flights allowed him to be with children that he and his wife had from previous marriages.

“I’m trying my best to be present for things,” Zach Lahn told the Register. “I have no worries that we’ll be able to fulfill every duty we need to do on the campaign or as governor.”

Zach Lahn told the newspaper he moved from Kansas to Iowa in 2023 and was an official Iowa voter in the 2024 general election and a 2025 local election.

Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson Terra Hernandez seized upon the Register’s reporting to declare Zach Lahn a “Kansas carpetbagger.”

“Lahn has been trying to fool Iowa voters since the start of his campaign, thinks he can pay his way to the governor’s mansion with his millions in out-of-state money and spends more time in Wichita than Belle Plaine,” Hernandez said.

On campaign trail

During the gubernatorial campaign, Zach Lahn has emphasized he was a sixth-generation Iowan with family roots as far back as the Civil War.

His campaign has concentrated on restoration of academic achievement in the state’s education system and removal of classroom educators who insisted on advancing personal ideology.

“We don’t have a spending problem. We have a quality problem,” Zack Lahn said during a GOP forum broadcast by KCCI in Des Moines.

He said he would work to preserve Iowa family farms after 10,000 vanished during the past 20 years. He said one-fourth of Iowa land was now owned by out-of-state investors. He proposed raising property taxes on Iowa land held by nonresidents so property taxes for Iowa residents could be lowered.

He’s questioned economic development strategies in Iowa that did little to stem the brain drain of youth to other states.

Zack Lahn, endorsed by MAHA Action associated with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., made a campaign issue of rising cancer rates in Iowa. He promised to veto any bill granting agricultural chemical companies immunity from lawsuits tied to alleged failure to accurately warn consumers of health risks.

“I believe big ag and big pharma have treated our farmers and families as numbers, not neighbors,” Zack Lahn said.

Clay Jones, Open Windows

Speaking of the Trump 250 dollar bill…

Don Jr. is also making big bucks off the presidency

Ann Telnaes

Propublica has a story about another Trump family grift

Vanilla 250

A washed-up musician singing for a washed-up president.

Clay Jones

When artists were invited to participate in what’s being called the Great American State Fair, they were promised that it was not political or partisan. And proving that point, Donald Trump will be kicking it off.

The Great American State Fair is described as a birthday bash to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, and it will include a series of concerts on the National Mall from June 24 to July 10.

After several artists dropped out, including Morris Day and the Time, Young MC, the Commodores, Martina McBride and Bret Michaels, Trump took to Truth Social and said, “I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance … so I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!”

The “yips” is what Trump has when he TACOs out or something. (snip-MORE)

Treasonous Scales

I don’t trust my scale either

Clay Jones

Donald Trump had another mystery visit to a doctor’s office this week.

Three years ago, only 28% of Americans surveyed by a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll said Trump was NOT healthy enough to serve as president. Today, that same poll found that 55% of Americans don’t believe Donald Trump is healthy enough to serve as president. There needs to be a poll asking if he’s mentally healthy enough to be president.

Trump has always rambled incoherently, but it seems to be distressing people more now in combination with his cankles, hand bruises, swollen eyes, and excessive blinking. Shhhh…he’s sleepy.

Trump had a physical in April of last year, and then he had a semi-annual physical in October, and now he has gone back for his third physical in 13 months. Additionally, he’s been to a Dentist twice over the past five months, which surprises everyone. He still has his teeth? (snip-MORE)

White House Cage Fight

The Trump regime loves them some cages

Clay Jones

All my life, I have heard people say they respect the office of the president, even if they do not like the current occupant. Even though I did not like or respect George W. Bush, I still respected the presidency. But it’s getting harder and harder to respect the office when the current occupant is holding cage fights on the south lawn.

Are we in gladiator times? Are we conducting fights on the self lawn to distract us from our troubles, like inflation, illegal tariffs, ICE goons shooting Americans in the streets, and Donald Trump’s chosen war? In addition to a gaudy oversize ballroom, should we also build a replica of the Roman Colosseum on the White House grounds? Is today’s Caesar, Donald Trump, going to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to determine the fate of the loser of each bout? Will wenches be feeding Trump grapes during the fights? (snip-MORE)

An Update From Janet!

Returning to Pennsylvania: A Journey of Resilience

Political cartoons / memes / and news I want to share. 5-31-2026

Thumbnail

To understand this cartoon you have to switch the axis of the point of view. For the rich guy the red line is going up, for the worker on the other axis it is going down. Hugs