Stay strong, talk to your neighbours if feasible where you live, work together locally. Every major catastrophe in my area of the world, even ones which totally upended my country (Romania) for a generation, my family survived via community and friend groups.
In a collapsed or collapsing state, mutual aid is mandatory for survival.
Hi, Eastern European here. We begged to join NATO. We kicked and screamed, wheeled and dealed, anything we could to get that coveted NATO membership.
You know why? Because we've been dealing with expansionist Russian imperialism for our entire histories. Different coats of paint in different time periods, but it's all the same shit. The US is an empire, but at least here it's preferable to Russia's imperial ambitions.
That'll last all of 1 week before a large percentage of new homeowners run out of money and start using the house as collateral with no hope of paying back loans.
The most effective solution I've ever heard of is the Norwegian housing first model, where the house itself remains under state control (at least at the start). As the occupant goes through rehab if necessary, retraining if necessary, is helped to find a job, etc, they can start paying towards the house and eventually fully buy it from the state. Meanwhile, the state can use that money to buy/build more social housing to help more people.
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert but that's how it works as far as I've read.
Edit: Oh, fun fact, this is similar to how the rich made so much money during COVID. Throw money at the poor, they have to spend that money, money goes to companies, then the owners.
I too saw Jimmy Carter. Him and his secret service detail had formed a heist crew called the "Cartwheelers". I know because they hired me to be the getaway driver, which was interesting because I don't have a driving license. They went to the bank with Jimmy Carter face masks to throw everyone off the scent, the ultimate double bluff.
The cashier, told to fill the bag with non-sequential bills at gunpoint, said "Mr. President? You sound an awful lot like Mr. Carter", to which he replied "I told you to fill the bag, not speculate on who I might be!", then pistol-whipped her. Anyways, long story short, we made it out of there ok. He left his calling card just outside the bank: a single peanut.
I appreciate his response to criticism of his city-run grocery store initiative. I can't recall the exact wording, but it was something like "If it doesn't work, we'll cancel it". I don't mind an experiment like this as long as the people involved are results-oriented and willing to pivot if evidence shows it's not working.
This reminds me of a story from "They thought they were free". A Jew was accused of raping a woman. The judge heard the case and determined he was innocent. However, the gestapo were waiting outside the court to nab the accused as soon as the trial ended.
The judge decided to stick to his verdict instead of ruling guilty to put him in a normal prison instead of a concentration camp. After all, how could he justify ruling an innocent man guilty, even if that was objectively a better result for the man?
I think you misunderstood the commenter you replied to. The issue is he's blaming Thor as if Thor singlehandedly killed the initiative, when in reality it's a wider societal issue.
And then the rest of society has to pay for the healthcare. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to subsidize or completely pay for the healthcare of those less fortunate than me via taxation, but that necessarily has to be combined with a protectionist attitude towards food standards to keep costs manageable.
Also, if you get up at 11, you could just go get lunch.
In Romania, CFR makes DB look like the most competent shining lights of progress by comparison.
Track that hasn't been properly maintained since the fall of communism (and we keep lowering max speeds because of it). Rolling stock consisting of hand-me-downs. Constant engine breakdowns.
And the worst part? Due to political shenanigans finding inventive new ways to siphon money out of the company, it's still managed to find a way to go bankrupt again, meaning another government bailout.
I have a friend who does game QA. A lot of the time issues this major are caught, documented, and then management decides the extra delay to solve it isn't worth the effort because "it's not going to impact enough people to matter". Then, once a firestorm erupts due to public backlash, they try and blame it on QA.
My friend has gotten very good at ass-covering, and makes sure every issue ticket is very explicit, not only in terms of what the issue is, the cause, reproducibility, but also how likely the average user is to hit it just to avoid blame.
Best of luck. Whatever else happens, I hope you manage to make it through to the other side.