The timing has raised eyebrows because the leadership shake-up comes while the United States remains deeply engaged in the Iran conflict. Normally, wars are when you want experienced military leaders in place. The Pentagon seems to be testing the alternative theory that uncertainty builds character.

Supporters argue Hegseth is eliminating bureaucracy and replacing an entrenched leadership culture with people who share his vision. Critics counter that the purge increasingly appears driven by personal loyalty, gender, and skin color rather than military readiness, leaving key leadership positions vacant during an ongoing conflict.

At this point, serving as a senior Pentagon official under Hegseth may be the military’s most risky assignment. Enemy missiles are still a concern, but so are performance reviews.

Mike Luckovich - Creators

Matt Davies - Andrews McMeel

Jimmy Margulies - King Features

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The move follows months of escalating tariffs and presidential taunts aimed at America’s northern neighbor. Having failed to convince Canada to become the 51st state or agree to continually shifting trade demands, the administration appears to have settled for a childish tantrum that accomplishes nothing other than soothing the fragile ego of the petulant neon narcissist. At this rate, Americans shouldn’t be surprised if the administration next renames the enire country “Can-a-Lago.”

Tech companies with navigation apps have been left to sort out the cartographic food fight. Americans just want to know how this tariff tiff will help them afford groceries again. Diplomacy, it turns out, is a lot harder than just insulting an entire nation with a Sharpie.

Matt Davies - Andrews McMeel

Jack Ohman - Tribune Content Agency

Rob Rogers - Tinyview Comics and Andrews McMeel

Rick McKee - cagle.com/mckee

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Taylor Jones - cagle.com/jones

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While public health officials pleaded with parents to vaccinate their children, the administration remained busy encouraging Americans to ask more questions about vaccines than they ask about chain emails from their uncle. Measles, for its part, is thrilled to discover that it has been promoted from a history lesson back to current events.

Meanwhile, citizens from Virginia to Texas packed town halls to protest massive AI data centers that promise booming demand for electricity, water, and somebody else’s backyard. Silicon Valley insists the facilities are building the future. The neighbors would simply prefer the future not require its own power plant and reservoir.

And north of the border, Canada’s trade war with Washington entered a new phase as Prime Minister Mark Carney dug in and President Trump floated renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.” Canadians responded the only way they know how: by buying local, waving the maple leaf, and politely informing the United States exactly where it could stick its tariffs. Turns out “elbows up” isn’t just a hockey expression. It’s foreign policy now.

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Trump’s latest tariffs are hitting everything from Christmas lights to honey, leaving Canadian businesses scrambling for new customers and new suppliers. But rather than fold, many Canadians have embraced what hockey fans call “elbows up,” a national strategy that combines economic patriotism with just enough passive aggression to make walking away feel like a middle finger.

The trade dispute has also produced one of the strangest geopolitical rivalries in modern history. Canada is signing energy deals with Germany, expanding trade with China, repairing relations with India, and looking for customers almost anywhere that doesn’t require a passport festooned with Trump’s mug.

Perhaps the biggest loser in all this is the reputation of the United States as a reliable trading partner, since as soon as Trump signs a deal, he starts looking for ways to undo it. Next to fall is the stereotype that Canadians are too polite to fight back. It turns out they’ll gladly inspect grocery labels like forensic investigators, boycott American products, and tell the President of the United States exactly where he can stick his tariffs.

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Chris Britt - Creators

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She has donated millions to charitable causes, helped fund medical research, provided disaster relief to communities in need, and, through her Imagination Library, placed hundreds of millions of books into the hands of children around the world. She has never seemed interested in using generosity as a branding exercise. Instead, it has been a natural extension of who she is; a belief that if you’ve been blessed, you have an obligation to bless others, a sentiment sadly missing in today’s self centered and self-aggrandizing culture.

What makes Parton especially beloved is that her compassion never feels performative. She possesses a rare ability to make people feel seen, whether they’re a lifelong fan, a struggling family, or a child opening a book for the very first time. Her humor is genuine, her humility disarming, and her empathy unmistakable. She has spent decades proving that kindness and success are not competing virtues but complementary ones.

Long after the songs stop playing, Dolly Parton will be remembered not simply as a country music icon, but as someone who consistently chose generosity over ego, grace over bitterness, and hope over cynicism. Fame made her a star. Compassion made her unforgettable.

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The administration says no country is above U.S. sanctions, though it conspicuously avoided saying the word “China” while discussing the nation that buys roughly 90 percent of Iran’s oil. It’s the diplomatic equivalent of announcing you’ll confront the biggest kid on the playground, just as soon as he’s done eating lunch and after next month’s scheduled playdate.

Supporters hailed the announcement as a novel strategy to end a war that has dragged into its sixth month. Skeptics called it a “nothing burger,” noting that sanctions don’t pressure anyone until they’re actually imposed. In fairness, threatening to get serious has become one of Washington’s most renewable energy sources. The administration insists this is a decisive turning point. Foreign governments appear to be treating it more like a calendar reminder.

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The b…

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ICE insists its new shock gloves are meant to reduce injuries, because nothing will make you calmer than 380 volts of current running through your body. Meanwhile, sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were told conditions weren’t nearly as bad as they had reported, proving that the fastest way to improve morale is simply to redefine misery as fake news.

Inside the White House, Karoline Leavitt is preparing to depart while Natalie Harp appears to have become the administration’s indispensable Trump whisperer, keeping the president supplied with a steady stream of favorable headlines and printouts. Somewhere, the National Archives is wondering whether future historians should preserve the official records or just back up the printer queue.

And finally, America officially surpassed $40 trillion in debt. The good news is that both parties agree the nation’s fiscal path is unsustainable. The bad news is that they also agree someone else should fix it. At this point, the federal budget resembles a family that’s stopped opening its credit card statements because they figure what they don’t know won’t hurt them.

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The poll suggests voters have grown increasingly unhappy with the econom…

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The remarkable part is that nobody can honestly blame just one party. Republicans cut taxes. Democrats expand programs. Republicans expand programs. Democrats extend tax cuts. Everyone campaigns as a fiscal hawk and governs like they just found a government credit card under the couch cushions. The only truly bipartisan achievement in Washington has been proving that deficits are somebody else’s problem.

The budget has become the financial equivalent of a homeowner who insists he can’t afford to fix the roof because the monthly payments on the last five home-equity loans are getting too expensive. Interest on the debt is now one of the government’s fastest-growing expenses, meaning taxpayers are increasingly borrowing money simply to pay for money they already borrowed. At this point, compound interest deserves a Cabinet position.

Perhaps the strangest part is that the world keeps lending us more. Investors continue buying U.S. Treasury bonds because they’re still considered the safest investment on Earth. America has somehow become the friend who never pays off his credit cards, keeps asking everyone for another loan, and still maintains an 850 credit score because, technically, he’s never missed a payment. Yet.

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Despite the president’s denials, there are numerous reports of mold, rotten food, sailors attempting to jump overboard, and Navy leadership holding meetings with families over mental health concerns. Critics responded by posting a photo of a dinner that looked suspiciously like evidence from a war-crimes tribunal, the administration’s defense remained essentially the same: don’t believe your lying eyes. Sailors aren’t miserable. That’s just “fake news.” Remove the news story, and suddenly the mystery meat tastes like filet mignon.

To be fair, serving more than 260 days at sea in a combat zone is stressful under the best of circumstances. Navy leaders themselves acknowledged the importance of addressing mental health and crew resilience. But in Trump’s reality distortion field, acknowledging a problem is less important than accusing the messenger of inventing it.

At this point, the administration’s crisis-management strategy has become remarkably consistent: if conditions aboard an aircraft carrier are bad enough to make sailors want to abandon ship, simply declare that reality itself has gone AWOL.

Steve Breen - Creators

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Donald Trump’s secret ride inside a food-service truck may have been a legitimate security precaution, but it also meant White House staff and reporters unknowingly played decoys while the administration later snuck him back onto the aircraft so he could make a dramatic exit from Air Force One for the cameras. It’s comforting to know that in a supposed national security emergency, there was still time to mislead the American public with fabricated stagecraft.

Later in the week, ICE announced plans to equip agents with gloves that deliver painful electric shocks, marketed, of course, as a “de-escalation” tool. Because what better way to calm a tense situation than introducing a wearable cattle prod into the conversation?

Now, with the midterms looming, Republicans have rediscovered their favorite vintage campaign strategy. Inflation? Deficits? Housing? Nah. The real threat, we’re told, is that Democrats are secretly plotting to replace hot dogs and apple pie with collectivized kale and a gantlet of Gulags. It appears the only thing getting recycled faster than campaign talking points is stale McCarthyism.

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The administration did use the opportunity to revive the long-discredited claim that spacing out childhood vaccines might reduce autism, despite decades of research finding no connection. Doctors politely responded that the alternative schedule has never been shown to be safer or more effective, but does have one proven benefit: it dramatically increases the number of times toddlers get to scream in pediatricians’ offices.

The executive order calls for exploring whether the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine should be split into three separate shots. Critics noted this was an unusual strategy for an administration concerned that children receive “too many shots,” since (checks notes) the number three still appears to be greater than the number one.

Health experts warned that the greatest public-health impact may not come from the order itself—which changes almost nothing—but from repeatedly suggesting established vaccines are suspect. After all, if there’s one lesson America has learned, it’s that facts may be stubborn things, but confusion spreads even faster than the measles.

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This was after switching from the “new” Air Force One to the “old” Air Force One. The White House initially explained the aircraft shuffle with the sort of story usually offered by a child explaining why there are crayon drawings all over the walls: to let U.S. troops based in the UK tour his newer, Qatari-grifted presidential jet. Weeks later, it emerged that the president didn’t actually fly home on either the old Air Force One or the new Air Force One.

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