Socialist former Labor Secretary  Robert Reich took to Facebook Wednesday and posted details of a conversation he supposedly had with a friend who is a Republican former member of Congress that he did not name.
According to the former congressweasel, serious discussions are underway for more Republicans to follow Senator Bob Corker into retirement, which would trigger a “nuclear response” for either President Donald Trump’s impeachment or the invocation of the 25^th Amendment to remove him from office.
“Others are thinking about doing what Bob did,” the unnamed congressweasel told Reich. “Sounding the alarm. They think Trump’s nuts. Unfit. Dangerous.”
Corker, you may recall, lashed out at Trump in an interview with The New York Times over the weekend after announcing he wouldn’t seek re-election to his senate seat. In it, he hinted that Trump wasn’t in command of his faculties and that other Republicans should “join him in speaking out about the president.”
That has driven a major theme in the mainstream media this week sparked by a piece in Vanity Fair, with hints and outright charges from the pundit and political class that Trump has lost his mind. To wit:

In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trump’s ire is being fueled by his stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama Republican primary. “Alabama was a huge blow to his psyche,” a person close to Trump said. “He saw the cult of personality was broken.”
According to two sources familiar with the conversation, Trump vented to his longtime security chief, Keith Schiller, “I hate everyone in the White House! There are a few exceptions, but I hate them!”

Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, who authored the piece above, went on MSNBC and told host Chris Hayes:

I just want to put into context the conversation with a very prominent Republican today, who literally was saying that they imagine Gen. Kelly and Secretary Mattis have had conversations that if Trump lunged for the nuclear football, what would they do? Would they tackle him? I mean literally, physically restrain him from putting the country at perilous risk. And that is the kind of situation we’re in.

McClatchy’s D.C. Bureau, conveniently published a piece about the 25^thAmendment on Oct. 12 which noted that former Trump aide Steve Bannon reportedly warned Trump that he was in danger of being removed by his cabinet via the 25^th Amendment. Bannon reportedly thinks Trump’s chances of finishing his term are about 30 percent. Some of the reporting in this article links back to the Vanity Fair piece. Vanity Fair, by the way, has been known to print fake news.
Meanwhile, Democrats are moving to impeach Trump. Representative Al Green read articles of impeachment for Trump on the House floor on Oct. 11, and called for his removal via the 25^th Amendment.
Back to Reich and his Facebook post. He claims the former Republican congressweasel told him that the only thing keeping Republicans in the House and Senate from removing Trump is a desire to get tax reform passed.

Former congressweasel (FC): Here’s the thing. They really want to get this tax bill through. That’s all they have going for them. They don’t want to face voters in ’18 or ’20 without something to show for it. They’re just praying Trump doesn’t do something really, really stupid before the tax bill.
Reich: Like a nuclear war?
FC: Look, all I can tell you is many of the people I talk with are getting freaked out. It’s not as if there’s any careful strategizing going on. Not like, well, do we balance the tax bill against nuclear war? No, no. They’re worried as hell. They’re also worried about Trump crazies, all the ignoramuses he’s stirred up. I mean, Roy Moore? How many more of them do you need to destroy the party?
Me: So what’s gonna happen?
FC: You got me. I’m just glad I’m not there anymore. Trump’s not just a moron. He’s a despicable human being. And he’s getting crazier. Paranoid. Unhinged. Everyone knows it. I mean, we’re in shit up to our eyeballs with this guy.

So we’re expected to believe that Trump’s twitter tirades with North Korea’s Lil’ Kim are a bigger danger for starting nuclear war than the neocons both left and right who have for the last several years – with Barack Obama’s assistance – tried to provoke Russia into a war via Ukraine and Syria?
Spare me the phony outrage.