The rallying cry for the Republican Party is a call to arms against their front runner, Donald Trump.

Has the Grand Old Party gone bonkers, become too old, perhaps senile? Not at all. There are three billion reasons for their self-defeating strategy. But more on that later.

Last June Trump threw his baseball cap into the ring. He was going to run for the nation's top office, the presidency. Was Trump looking for a limelight replacement for The Apprentice? He couldn't be serious. He didn't have a chance against the Republican anointed, Jeb Bush.

But the impossible happened (it sometimes does). He consistently topped Jeb in the polls while spending nothing on ads relying on free media exposure for publicity. Finally, Jeb quit, after spending $130 million with little to show for it but embarrassment.

Senator Marco Rubio was the next great Red hope. But he, too, disappeared from the contender lineup after Trump trounced him in the Florida primary, Rubio's home state.

If polls couldn't finish Trump, then what about another billionaire. Michael Bloomberg with $38 billion in his bank account seemed to fill the bill. But the GOP had to accept the fact that the former mayor of NYC would be as popular as a kazoo player at Carnage Hall. Money was not their answer.

Now their only hope was a Hail Mary shot, a brokered convention. Here's how that works.

To win the Republican nomination, a candidate must accrue 1,237 delegates on or before June 7, the last Rep. primary. Suppose Trump only manages 1,236 delegates. Then, he has failed to win the party's baton. Trump is out. Hallelujah! The party is now open to other candidates, some of whom may not have even been in the running.

Sound crazy? Oh, no says the party's Chairman Reince Priebus, that's the rule, and that's fair.

Sure, by the GOP's definition “that's fair,” but by the public's definition, that's preposterous. Should millions of voters be disenfranchised by an entrenched few in the GOP? In that way, dragons lie.

Let's go back to the three billion reasons for the GOP shooting itself in the foot, if not in the head. As you may have guessed, it's three billion dollars to be parceled out by 11,500 lobbyists. Those are the official figures.

But American University Professor James Thurber, who has studied congressional lobbying for more than 30 years, is convinced it is more, much more.

Lobbyists have scurried out of public's eye into the shadows. Thurber puts the number of lobbyists, above ground and underground at 100,000, with $9 billion to be doled out in quid pro quo political deals.

It's as comfortable an arrangement as a down comforter on a winter's night. Once in office, a congressman has a waiting room full of lobbyists representing private interests and Big Business. No more concerns about money for his reelection war chest, or anything else. And the private interests and Big Business cartels, they're happy, too. They get the regs and laws they want.

Yes, everyone's happy, Big Business, the lobbyists, the congressmen---everyone except the public; they get shortchanged big time.

It worked just fine for about 30 years. Then came Trump.

Trump has more faults than an old dog has fleas, but he's our dog, and he's nipping at the heels of a corrupted Republican Party, the lobbyists, Big Business, and the $9 billion green machine that feeds the on-the-take Washington insiders. So of course, no one likes Trump---no one except the voters.

Trump wants to staunch the flow of cheap, illegal labor into the states, control immigration with a thousand-mile long Great Wall of Trump at the southern border, renegotiate job-killing trade agreements and eliminate congressional graft. Saints preserve us. Is the man mad?

Now the business complaint Republican Party has one last chance to dump Trump, a brokered convention. This, they hope, can re-establish the establishment. But the GOP should be very careful about what they wish.

The devil they know might not be such a bad chap as the devil they don't know.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

I would like to comment on political signage that is springing up.  I love that there are friends and committee folks who support the candidate of their choice, and are active about it. I am too. I place signs.

My complaint is that there are signs on private property, without land-owner permission. I am such a land-owner, who was surprised to see the postings on my property. I would hope that the candidates, or the political party leaders, will take a moment to educate the sign placers: check with the property owner and get permission. It is my understanding that public property posting is ok, and assumed to be for the good of all.

I don't want to sound like sour grapes, I just am not endorsing the other sign, and do not want to appear that the private property is public.

And in the spirit of good friends and committee folks who get out there to spread the word of their candidate, may the best person get the job.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Allen

New Milford, Pa

I have been adopting animals from the Montrose human society for 35 years now; usually the old ones no one wants. Once I even adopted a 23 year old Maltese. Mind you I only got to enjoy her company for 6 months until she passed but it was the most enjoyable 6 months of my life, and hers. (I carried her around and held her because she was blind). But since True Friends has taken over it is a different story. I am in their computer and have been for years, but I still went through their lengthy application, like everyone else.

I was in there in September I adopted a kitten and still had to jump through all the hoops. As I was a returning patron, I told the girl you remember me I'm in your computer! Her response was a very unfriendly I don’t know you! The woman that had been there for years was no longer working there. I had just lost 2 of my cats; 1 was 13 and the other 20. So last week when I saw the old cat with 3 legs, no tail and missing ears and another old tuxedo cat the owner had died I went up to adopt them. Everything was set until I had to fill out a paper about declawing. All of my cats are inside and declawed. The new rule of the week, a strict no declawing rule. So as you can guess the poor cats are still there.

True Friends is not trying to rehome animals, they have become dictators. They tell you what you can and cant, do with your animal. I suppose neutering and spaying are inhuman.  Some cats can not retract their toenails and get stuck on everything. So as this beautiful black tuxedo cat was sitting on my lap, her toenails were digging into my leg because she could not retract them. I have had all of my cats declawed by Dr. Crowley, he does a wonderful job, no bleeding, no swelling and never an infection.

People donate large amounts of money to True Friends, including Cabot oils, 30 thousand a year. They are going to need it to take care of all the animals they will not let anyone adopt! I will go to Luzerne, Lackawanna and Broome county to adopt from now on. No more donations or food drives with my church for True Friends. No wonder everyone buys at the pet store!

Sincerely,

Nicole Bernosky

Gibson, PA

I'm quite saddened to have to point out that Donald trump is rather instinctively using the Fascist playbook, and profiting from it. To wit:

1) Promising to recapture a lost, more glorious past.  (As in Make America Great "Again". By shameful implication, it's not.)

2) Exploiting economic discontent.

3) Appealing to the working class, while actually being for the economic elite.

4) Stirring up animosity toward foreigners.

5) Attacking the media, verbally and physically.

6) Encouraging violence against dissenters.

7) Blaming violence on opponents-- (The Nazis burned the Reichstag and blamed the Communists.) then excusing, with "patriotic" and "passionate", when his followers clearly initiate violence.

In addition, Trump displays character traits of Fascist dictators. Notably, bellicosity, vanity, and extremely thin skin.

And, Trump told a meeting of GOP bigwigs, "If you want to be smart, you should get behind this movement".  I couldn't help but think, "Don't be stupid, be a smarty-- come and join the Nazi Party."

All whimsy aside, we need to realize that Fascism is something to dread, because we are all Fascist inside-- either we recognize it and fight the tendency, or we give in to it and get worse.

Fascism is a gut attitude.  It's not open to thinking things over, but only reacting.  It craves simple answers to complex problems. It denies the ability of people-- and cultures-- to grow and improve. It chooses to remain primitive and just wallow there.

People may reject the term but the signs are there.

Going Fascist would be discarding the legacy of our Founding Fathers, Enlightenment men all.  It would mean that the American experiment in Democracy would be, finally, a failure. We might not be able to step back from that abyss. The time to do that is now.

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck

Rushville, PA