Texas Medical Association
The Republican Party of Texas will hold its statewide convention on July 16 – 17 in Houston. As 6,000 Republicans gather at the downtown convention center, no masks will be required.
One of the big sponsors is the Texas Medical Association.
Oddly enough, the Texas Medical Association cancelled its own convention set in last May in Fort Worth, even though Texas had a low rate of the virus then. They have continued to hold board meetings online, but I guess you can’t upset Republicans if you want to keep medical care for-profit.
And the TMA ain’t backing down.
Annear said TMA’s agreement with the Republican Party of Texas was set in stone “before the pandemic was a major issue here — before we hit any stay-home suggestions or mandates, mask policies or anything like that.”
And because the group signed on to the sponsorship before the pandemic began and “no conditions like that were discussed,” it will not back out of the agreement, he said.
So if the Republican Party of Texas decided to obey a demand of random hourly human sacrifice to the gods of presidential pardons, the TMA would not throw the first set stone.
You can contact the Texas Medical Association here. In the sweetest possible way, you might want to thank them for filling up ICU beds with people who do not believe in science, that doctors are part of making up this hoax, and that human sacrifice might be a good idea.
Shame on them. There are medical people dying trying to save lives and these dudes are supporting a 6,000 person petri dish bomb.
I truly don’t understand how the doctors in this group can condone this. Most charitable interpretation is that the rank & file membership is objecting strongly, but the leadership is pushing to keep the sponsorship. Having said that, the president of this organization is Dr. Diana Fite, who about 30 years ago was my ob-gyn here in Houston. I found her to be a good and compassionate doctor. However, I’ll be emailing her to ask what on earth the TMA is thinking, here.
1OK, so one click into that website yields this:
https://www.texmed.org/TexasMedicineDetail.aspx?id=53892
And the following is a quote from that page:
Share this simple message, over and over, with our patients, our friends, our family, the news media, and elected officials:
“Wash your hands often. Stay home if you can. Practice social distancing. And for your sake, for your neighbors’ sake, for my sake, and for your grandma’s sake, wear a mask, Texas.”
If I were paying dues into that organization I would be pissed.
2Strange that 6000 was the approx. turnout in Tulsa. Is there some crowd limit attached to individual one? Isn’t the GOP worried about getting Trumpstink on their re-election hopes?
Will empty seats be the main topic of this gala event?
3Sounds straight forward to me:
1. Contracts by, for, and of the upper 1% are sacrosant. Look at how union labor’s retirement belongs to the corporation, while the execs bonuses, retirements, salaries are also untouchable.
2. Alternative, the docs just dont like cons politicos?
4At a minimum, the TMA should publicly state that it endorses masking and social distancing at ALL public events, and will distribute masks and sanitizer at the Convention, and will require these measures at any booth it maintains or any ‘”events” it hosts there.
5Those who will not learn from the mistakes of others must learn from their own.
I expect the medical association is run by old school doctors, who own a practice group. They’re afraid of “socialized medicine” restricting their fees, or restricting things like the “out of network” scam, where an in-network hospital uses out of network doctors for anesthesia, etc. The newer doctors know that their choices are government capped fees, or insurer-capped fees.
6Maybe the Drs. are just let Darwin Awards work it out.
7If I read it right, they can’t change the conditions that were established months ago before the virus hit Texas like a hurricane. Presumably if the convention center were on fire, they’d still go ahead with the circus because it wasn’t on fire when the contract was signed. It’s just logic.
8Opinions and Speculation
Pardon Nazi – ‘No pardons for you!
Come back after life plus 99 years!’
***************************
When the rats jump ship – Watching the aerosols dance at the convention
*********************
Mike Pence is ‘repudiating’ Trump as Republicans look to flee the president: National affairs analyst
Edit: ’…a matter of pure self-interest.’
Raw Story June 30, 2020 – Quick read:
https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/mike-pence-is-repudiating-trump-as-republicans-look-to-flee-the-president-national-affairs-analyst/
9John Jackson @5, I copied and pasted your paragraph into the middle of my email (without crediting you). You may shoot me on sight, but I just don’t think I could have said it better.
Buttermilk Sky @ 8, I also sort of stole from you; I suggested they would pull funding if the Rs were handing out weapons, and the virus that causes Covid-19 is a weapon, so same thing.
JJ, thanks for the link.
10Good ol’ “Death Panels” are now active in many parts of Texas as hospitals are forced to triage incoming critical patients due to current shortages of ICU beds.
11Remember, it’s not just those ‘loser’ COVID19 victims coming into ERs; all the normal stroke, heart attack, accident victims, etc., rushed in are affected too.
Follow the money
Just had a past client call and talk about down-sizing due upcoming hospital layoffs. I had just heard a Houston doctor on TV state that he was worried about having enough personnel. Then I realized that a for-profit health care system will let people die if the profit is not there.
12The TMA just did a 180, now urging the Rethugs to cancel the live viral vector convention.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/30/texas-gop-convention-coronavirus-medical-association/
13