Tag Archives: 13th Cong District

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Congressman: a non-funny joke

Let’s just lay a couple of cards on the table and see how they play, shall we?

Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle — a region of the state I know well — are served in Congress by someone who doesn’t belong there. Republican Ronny Jackson became embroiled in an incident at a rodeo near Amarillo the other day. He got roughed up by cops patrolling the event and then used language that — to say the very least — is totally unbefitting a member of Congress.

Jackson said he was trying to help a teenager who was under duress. Police say he was interfering with their efforts to do the same thing. A tussle occurred and Jackson got handcuffed briefly.

After being freed of the cuffs, Jackson launched a series of f-bombs at the cops and threatened Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry politically, saying in effect he would ensure he loses the next time he runs for re-election.

I’ve heard the bodycam audio of the incident and, so help me, it sounds to me like something one doesn’t say if (a) he is an elected member of Congress and (b) is totally in control of himself and is not intoxicated. Per the latter point, Jackson has been known to imbibe … you know?

I have taken a dim view of Jackson ever since he moved to Amarillo in 2020 to run for the seat vacated by longtime U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, a native of Donley County and an individual who knows the region well. I can say without an ounce of equivocation that Thornberry never would be caught saying the things to a police officer that flew out of Jackson’s pie hole.

This incident likely will blow over eventually. Panhandle voters will move on to something else. Jackson’s behavior will be swept away and he probably — as much as I hate to acknowledge it — will be re-elected in 2024. After that? Rumors are flying that he might decide in 2026 to challenge John Cornyn for the senior Republican’s U.S. Senate seat. It all would be a shame.

My own belief is that he has disgraced himself.

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More to the story? Hmm …

You can describe me as not entirely surprised that there might be more to a story involving a Republican congressman who — reportedly — helped someone in distress in a rodeo outside of Amarillo.

It turns out there might be more to examine in the conduct of Rep. Ronny Jackson.

Reports initially stated that Jackson rushed to aid a teenager who was having a seizure in a rodeo in Carson County. Now comes word from Sheriff Tam Terry that Jackson threatened him politically if he didn’t examine the incident further.

According to the Texas Tribune: After the congressman was released, he demanded Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry call him and investigate the incident. During that call, Terry, a Republican, said that Jackson warned him that he would “bury me in the next election.”

Moreover, we now hear from a police report that sheriff’s deputies tried to clear the area, but that Jackson refused their orders, screaming at deputies who — according to reports — were merely trying to do their job.

Jackson’s office also said that the congressman had not been drinking, but wait … now we hear that he was seen imbibing in adult beverages prior to all hell breaking loose.

“Congressman Jackson was not drinking and was prevented from giving medical care in a potentially life-threatening situation due to overly aggressive and incompetent actions by the local authorities present at the time of the incident,” said Kate Lair, a spokesperson for Jackson. “Again, he was asked to help the teenager when no other uniformed medics were present. Congressman Jackson, as a trained ER physician, will not apologize for sparing no effort to help in a medical emergency, especially when the circumstances were chaotic and the local authorities refused to help the situation.”

Ronny Jackson cursed at, threatened officers in altercation at rodeo | The Texas Tribune

What the spokeswoman does not acknowledge, of course, is that Jackson has been perceived by many as a political hothead since taking office in the 13th Congressional District in 2021. He has been heard many times making hysterical statements about the “Deep State” and vowing to investigate the Biden administration for misdeeds that never occurred.

All of this gives the latest updated information about what happened in Carson County a bit more credibility.

 

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When will denigration stop?

I cannot help but wonder how a member of Congress can continually denigrate the president of the United States, suggesting the president is mentally unfit for high office and then possibly expect that president to respond to a request — were it to come from the congressman — for help in any fashion.

U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson is a freshman Republican member of the House from the Texas Panhandle. Ever since taking office after winning election in 2020, Jackson has been on a constant Twitter harangue over President Biden’s occasional verbal stumbles.

He doesn’t refer to Joe Biden as “President” Biden. He continually harps on what I believe is a red-herring argument that the POTUS would fail a cognitive test.

Jackson recently declared that the nation needs Donald Trump “more than ever.” No, Ronny, the nation does not need the serial liar and philanderer, the crook, the insurrectionist, the power-hungry narcissist, the a**hole who cannot articulate a single public policy with any degree of intelligence.

Back to my point. There could come a time when the 13th Congressional District of Texas needs immediate federal attention. Natural disasters do strike, you know. How does the congressman, the author of the string of idiotic, moronic and disgraceful Twitter messages ask the president for help?

Moreover, how does the president, who has been on the receiving end of these vile epithets, respond to those requests, were they to come?

I mention Jackson mainly because he represents a region I used to call home. He also has become a bit of a national media star, given his extreme anger aimed at President Biden; Fox News loves having this clown on air expressing himself in such a cavalier fashion … without ever challenging the veracity of the claims he makes.

Hey, I am just asking … for a friend.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Doc issues phony diagnoses

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

I want to make one more — but certainly not my final — observation about the idiot who represents the Texas Panhandle in the U.S. Congress. Ready? Here goes …

Republican Ronny Jackson is a trained medical doctor who once served as physician to three U.S. presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

As a physician, he should know the limits of his knowledge and whether he is capable of diagnosing individuals from the cheap seats. Thus, he is in no position or has any medical or ethical authority to suggest that President Biden needs a “cognitive exam” or that he is “unfit” to serve in office because he lacks the medical snap required.

Jackson has not examined the president. He has not seen Joe Biden’s medical charts. I feel confident in proclaiming that he has no fu**ing clue about the president’s mental acuity.

Therefore, Ronny Jackson — not Joe Biden — is the one who is unfit for the office he occupies representing the 13th Congressional District of Texas. I say that because he has violated — in my view — a basic tenet of medicine, which is that he is speaking way out of turn on something of which he has no direct knowledge.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Having trouble letting go

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

When you spend nearly 18 years of your professional life commenting on and reporting on the affairs of a congressional district, it could be difficult letting go of that interest even after you move away from that area.

That’s what I am finding out about myself as I watch the goings-on in the 13th Congressional District of West Texas. The politics of that district was a big part of my life while I worked for the Amarillo Globe-News from 1995 until 2012. The congressman I covered, Republican Mac Thornberry, has retired. His successor is a clown/goofball/Twitter troll named Ronny Jackson.

Jackson, to be put it plainly, just pisses me off. Thus, I am likely to take an interest in the political campaign in 2022, when Jackson runs for re-election to a second term in Congress.

I hope he gets a serious butt-whuppin’, although I am acutely aware of how tough that will be, given the 13th’s strong Republican tradition.

Thus, a candidate named Kathleen Brown, a Wichita Falls lawyer, has declared her desire to win the Democratic Party primary next spring. She wants to run against Jackson. I will use this blog to extol her candidacy.

First things first. I need to learn more about this individual.

I used to think it was important for the 13th to be represented by someone from the Panhandle, given that the Panhandle lies at the heart of the sprawling district. Jackson, though, isn’t really “from” that region. He moved there just prior to the 2020 campaign to seek the seat that Thornberry was vacating. Indeed, Jackson — a retired physician, Navy admiral and suck-up to the 45th POTUS — had never lived there until he moved in.

So the residency requirement is now off the table for me. Kathleen Brown’s hometown is as much a part of the 13th as Amarillo.

I’m just going to keep my eyes peeled and my ears dialed in as the debate ramps up going into the midterm election.

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Trumpism boiled down

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelils_92@hotmail.com

It occurs to me as I read my Twitter feed that the voters in the congressional district where I once lived are being exposed to a boiled-down version of Trumpism from their elected House of Representatives member.

Rep. Ronny Jackson is a Republican — duh!— who now lives in Amarillo. He didn’t live anywhere near the Texas Panhandle before deciding to run for the 13th Congressional District seat being vacated by fellow Republican Mac Thornberry. He moved to the region. He got elected in November.

Ever since taking office, Rep. Jackson has been doing something that Thornberry rarely did. He fires off Twitter taunts constantly.

He has suggested that President Biden is destroying the country. That Biden is leading us toward a “communist” state. That the border crisis is all on Biden. That Democrats are trying to take away people’s right to own firearms.

Do you get where I am going with this? Republican congressmen and women all across the land who adhere to Donald J. Trump’s view of how the world should be have taken to this social medium.

That’s Jackson. All the way, man.

He isn’t sending Twitter messages out about how to improve farm policy. Or about how to protect Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. Or how to preserve Alibates Flint Quarry National Monument — the only national monument in Texas! Hell, he isn’t even tweeting about whether Interstates 40 and 27 should be shored up in a national infrastructure bill.

Oh, no. This clown has hopped onto the Donald Trump clown car parade and is spewing the same brand of demagogic nonsense that flows from Trump’s pie hole.

I am going to presume that most of his constituents are OK with it. They just adore Donald Trump and might want him to run again for POTUS. Their congressman is parroting his hero, too.

You want to know what has happened to the Republican Party? Look no further than the 13th Congressional District of Texas.

It is so very disgusting.