This off-topic aside at the end being false doesn't really matter to the rest of the claims of the article. But...
For the most part rare earths are found in the USA and there are inactive mines which could be resumed. But once you remove the host material from the ground, and the rare earths from it, it becomes "concentrated" low level radioactive waste that is so expensive to dispose of that it is no longer economically viable to mine the rare earths from it.
ref: https://www.epa.gov/radiation/tenorm-rare-earths-mining-wast... (2024)
ref: Critical Minerals and TENORM: How Do Permitting Reform and Executive Branch Actions Address Radioactivity? (2023) https://www.pnnl.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/Remplex%20S... (pdf, EPA)
>But people like Musk and Trump are rich beyond belief and do not have to worry about such working-class issues. Perhaps the greatest irony is that the ongoing trade war started by President Trump is expected to hurt his base, working-class Americans, the most. Apparently, it is unfair that the United States has to buy rare earth metals from other countries because they are not naturally found domestically.
Again, sorry for going off-topic here. Rushed infrastructure changes in complex software systems are almost univerally a terrible idea. Especially with such a dodgey and non-status quo way of forcing the implementation.
Also article do not confirm headline that it's doge soft that do crashing because it is fraud check (pre-doge) subsystem crashing?
But firing peoples just before more work is needed don't look very smart, they was some country spies or what??
