This week brought in an avalanche of impeachment evidence, and I’m no longer sure what’s supposed to be a distraction from what.

Should I be focused on the emoluments violation of him hosting the G7 conference in Doral? Or should I be keeping my eye on the fact that Trump businesses kept two sets of books so they could commit tax fraud? Is this week’s top story Mick Mulvaney’s “Get over it” press conference? Or is that just cover to keep me away from the newest Giuliani story? Or is all of it to keep our minds off of the Gordon Sondland testimony? I only have one anagram in me; it’s hard to know where to start.

Fortunately, the English teacher in me is not at all conflicted about this week’s most pressing evidence that the Republican president is not fit for office. It recently came out that President Trump sent President Erdogan of Turkey a letter so unhinged that it prompted a near-universal response of “Is This Real?” (click the letter below for a larger image):

Upon receiving this letter, President Erdogan reportedly threw it in the trash.

From Hamlet:

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

This smugness unto Erdogan came not wanted.

President Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria to make way for a Turkish invasion has met with a chorus of disapproval, including such unlikely voices as Nikki Haley, Mitch McConnell, and even Lindsey Graham. The decision was apparently made after a phone call with President Erdogan of Turkey, and seems to have caught everyone else off guard.

Clearly, a deal was made between the two leaders. But the question is, was Trump negotiating on behalf of the United States, or on behalf of Donald Trump? Given recent events involving Ukraine, it seems fair to speculate that it might be the latter. So, did Trump benefit financially from the deal, possibly related to Trump Towers Istanbul? Did Erdogan agree to dig up dirt on Trump’s political opponents? Did the orders come from Putin? We just don’t know, and again, this is all speculation. But something doesn’t feel right about this. And this time, it’s his own party that’s calling foul.

I say to them, you have only yourselves to blame. This is why we don’t tolerate corruption in our leadership. If you were comfortable with his abuse of power when it was only to steal an election, you are the ones who have given him license to abuse it now to sell out US foreign policy. For you bid this be done when evil deeds have their permissive pass and not the punishment.

From Measure for Measure:

For we bid this be done
When evil deeds have their permissive pass
And not the punishment.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

He’s evil. Had the dumb VIP wimps not entertained of his peevishness, he’d now be restrained.

From The Tempest:

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

A Russian agent swiftly scammed the below-IQ NRA.

After months and months of indignant denials, the Trump administration is finally being made to confront hard evidence of their campaign’s collusion with the Russians. To be clear, there’s not any evidence that they colluded in the Russians’ election-tampering, but there was definitely ongoing communication between the Trump people and the Russian government, and about the election.

Donald Trump Jr. was forced to reveal that he met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 because he wanted campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton. The suspicious nature of the revelation was exacerbated by a string of lies and omissions surrounding this meeting. But the important thing to remember is that he was told in advance that this meeting was part of the Russian efforts to help the Trump campaign. There’s just no way to get around that.

And now we learn that the meetings that Jeff Sessions held with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were about the campaign after all, despite Sessions’ repeated insistence to the contrary, and this only after the secret meetings were revealed in the first place.

We really do need to let Mueller finish his investigation before we jump to any conclusions, but it’s not looking good for the Trump team. I don’t know; what do you think, Shakespeare?

From Henry V:

Their faults are open:
Arrest them to the answer of the law;
And God acquit them of their practises!

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Where Russian attachés offer to approach little frat squirt Don, and he’s eager to meet with them.

And I have send a special shout out to the brilliant Randy Rainbow, who’s like a modern-day Schoolhouse Rock for grown-ups.

Well, so much for politics stopping at the water’s edge.

Speaking in Warsaw, while on his way the G20 summit in Hamburg, President Trump was asked about Russian hacking, and he used the opportunity to go after President Obama, the American media, and our own intelligence community.

And now that he’s in Germany, he’s using Twitter to attack the media and, bizarrely, John Podesta.

From Much Ado about Nothing:

There’s not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Man, he still posts a whiny tweet from anger while nations meet?

This week, President Trump announced that he is withdrawing us from the Paris Climate Accord.

Now, in all likelihood, Trump is using this as a starting position for a renegotiation. That doesn’t mean we won’t actually pull out of the accord, as it seems unlikely such a renegotiation will be possible.

What this is really about is President Trump trying to show up President Obama. In his mind, he’s the greatest negotiator who ever lived. In reality, how good is he? He couldn’t even talk Republicans into repealing Obamacare.

What’s really scary about this is that, despite the unprecedented international coordination that went into making the deal, experts agree that it didn’t go nearly far enough to slow down the warming of the planet. Further action will still be needed, and that is going to be extremely difficult politically.

But what we definitely don’t want to do is move in the opposite direction, which is what this president is threatening to do. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to undo the damage that is done, and future generations may just look that this as the moment when we passed the point of no return.

Anyway, enjoy the anagram.

From Troilus and Cressida:

Paris is dirt to him.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Idiot rips; it harms.

The hits just keep on coming this week, but I suppose the top story is President Trump leaking classified information to the Russians in a meeting held in the Oval Office.

From Henry VI, Part Two:

This tongue hath parley’d unto foreign kings

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Russia got thy unhinged leak for nothing, pet.

From Love’s Labour’s Lost:

What did the Russian whisper in your ear?

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Putin (hard): Iran war!

White House: Yes, sir! – D.

From Richard II:

As dissolute as desperate; yet, through both,
I see some sparkles of a better hope,
Which elder days may happily bring forth.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Iran deal hedges? Obamacare posts possible? Let’s pray the freakish tragedy the Trump White House hotly forbodes is hype.

The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union. What might Shakespeare say?

From Cymbeline:

Our Britain seems as of it, but not in ’t

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

It’s best not to ruin from anti-EU bias.