Trump's True Believers in NorCo

Jason Banonis

In June, a local Black Lives Matter group arranged a protest in Pen Argyl to draw attention to the murder of George Floyd. Nearly everyone, white or black, Republican or Democrat, was horrified by the way a Minnesota police officer slowly squeezed the life out of a black man. But not Northampton County GOP Chair Gloria Lee Snover. She organized a dueling counter-protest. Her Vice  Chair, Frank Freidel, Jr., resigned. But believe me, Trump has plenty of true believers in the county of "mercy" and justice."  You can see them in action at numerous flag rallies throughout the Lehigh Valley. You can see their yard signs. A Trump supporter will usually have two or three, the bigger the better. His worshipers will blindly support everything he does, no matter how absurdly ridiculous. They were out in full force in Lower Saucon at Town Hall Park on September 17. They might call it a rally. I'll call it what it was - a superspreader.  This was made possible by Lower Saucon Tp Council member Jason Banonis. Until very recently, he was the Vice Chair of the NorCo GOP party. 

Lower Saucon Township, you may recall, hosted a recent Northampton County GOP's rally in honor of accused felons Mark and Patricia McCloskey. They are the St. Louis couple who allegedly pointed guns at protesters outside their home, and then altered the handgun brandished by Patricia so they could claim it was inoperable. 

This event was originally scheduled for Palmer Township's Fairview Park, but was rejected because the crowd size would be too large. Banonis obviously used his influence on Council to get a permit. Lower Saucon made a pavilion at Town Hall Park available for this gathering. When point-blank asked at Council's October 7 meeting,whether he threw his weight around, he answered with "I have no comment on that."

NorCo GOP boss Lee Snover applied for and received a permit to rent the pavilion at Town Hall Park. Had she wanted to rent the entire park, she could have applied for an event permit. In her application, she estimated the crowd size at 100, knowing full well that the event would be much larger. In a revised application, the estimate was increased to 150. A township rule bans the "[p]osting or displaying [of] any sign, banner, or advertisement of a political or commercial nature." Snover assured officials, in writing, that "[w]e will only display our organization banner and American flag. No trump [sic] flags or candidate signs will be displayed." 

Snover broke her promises. On the day of this superspreader, the true believers took over the entire park even though they had only rented the pavilion.  They parked everywhere, including grass and walking trails. They ripped tables out of the pavilion so people could sit at them. CDC guidelines concerning masks and social distancing were ignored. And of course, there were Trump signs everywhere.

Banonis' jeep

Banonis refused to confirm whether he was at this shindig. "What I do in my personal time is really no business of Council," he snarked at Council's October 7 meeting. Unfortunately for him, Saucon Shenanigans has a photo of him making his way to the rally.  I have also been sent a picture of his bad-ass black Jeep, parked right in the middle of the walking trail.

Fuck the walkers.   

In addition to taking over the entire park, the true believers also attempted to ban the press from covering their superspreader. "This is a closed-to-press event," announced a McCloskey handler from the Trump campaign. "This is not for the media." 

No sooner did he make this announcement that the true believers spun around and began shouting "Go! Go!" and "Hit the road!" to the reporters who were there. One of them purposely coughed in the face of a reporter. Others made a point of waving Trump flags or standing directly in front of anyone attempting to videotape the event, including at least one member of the public. (Her video is here.)  

Lower Saucon Tp taxpayers are on the hook for $1,939.02 for police coverage and $1,068.06 in cleanup costs. 

At Lower Saucon Tp's October 7 meeting, Banonis demonstrated his own disdain for both the press and even members of the public speaking at courtesy of the floor. He tried  to prevent PBS reporter Ben Stemrich from speaking. He interrupted members of the public and condescended or mansplained to Council members Priscilla deLeon and Kristen Stauffer. Though he supposedly represents the Lower Saucon taxpayer, he did his best to torpedo any effort to collect these expenses. 

Banonis stridently defended this illegal gathering. By the way, he at the time happened to be the Vice Chair of the NorCo GOP. 

According to the rumor mill, this Allentown civil defense lawyer, defender of big insurance money everywhere, may have recently given up his Republican post. Given his didain for both the public and press, he has ignored my email to him on this topic. I'm told his resignation was prompted by Lee Snover's recent, and very public, complaint that Trump has refused to visit Northampton County. She apparently thinks Northampton County will be the deciding factor in whether Trump is re-elected.