[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin Julio Lopez Varona Full Show @http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin180105.mp3″]
This week on CounterSpin: Though it’s largely slipped from the front page, more than a third of Puerto Rico remains without electricity, tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave, struggling schools and hospitals are still in the crosshairs of targeted “austerity” programs, and workers are facing cuts to their pensions and their jobs, even as they try to dig themselves out from under the effects of hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Meanwhile, the New York Times describes the banks and hedge funds that are preying on the situation—scooping up the homes of people unable to pay mortgage, for example—as “bargain hunters.” Different people have very different visions of the way forward for Puerto Rico—depending, to put it simply, on whether you think servicing debt matters more than human beings. It is, as a report from the activist group Hedge Clippers describes it, a story of “pain and profit”—and an important cautionary tale with meaning far beyond the island.
Julio Lopez Varona works with Hedge Clippers; he’s also the founding organizer with Make the Road Connecticut. We’ll talk with Julio Lopez Varona about those seeking profit in Puerto Rico’s pain, and how we can change that story.
Transcript: ‘Wealthy People Saw Puerto Rico Could Be Attacked’
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin Julio Lopez Varona Interview @http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin180105LopezVarona.mp3″]
First, Janine Jackson takes a look at recent press hyping Trump’s economy, defending his Jerusalem move and using him to whitewash 70 years of US foreign policy.
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin Banter @http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin180105Banter.mp3″]
Get well, Janine Jackson.
Me, again, bitching about the download. This week, I can download the banter segment without problem, but the Lopez Varona segment 404s with the link currently provided (as of 0240 UTC S 6 Jan 2018). Console spew is
$ URI=http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin180105LopezVarona.mp3
$ FN=”$(basename ${URI%%\?*})” ; DIR=”/media/me/6430-6433/talk/new” ; mkdir -p “${DIR}” ; FP=”${DIR}/${FN}” ; wget -c -O “${FP}” “${URI}”
–2018-01-05 19:37:59– http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin180105LopezVarona.mp3
Resolving http://www.fair.org (www.fair.org)… 208.97.185.203
Connecting to http://www.fair.org (www.fair.org)|208.97.185.203|:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 301 Moved Permanently
Location: http://fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin180105LopezVarona.mp3 [following]
–2018-01-05 19:38:01– http://fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin180105LopezVarona.mp3
Resolving fair.org (fair.org)… 208.97.185.203
Reusing existing connection to http://www.fair.org:80.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
2018-01-05 19:38:02 ERROR 404: Not Found.
Please fix! I’m fairly sure the problem is on your end, because
* I can download this week’s banter without problem
* I had a similar issue a few weeks ago, and the problem (IIRC–I can’t find the comment) was that your local filename’s spelling did not match that of your link. IIRC Jim Naureckas was able to fix it quickly.
Sorry about that–should work now.
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