It seems as though establishment politicians fall on a circular, two-dimensional spectrum. At one point you find the profoundly stupid, like Hank Johnson, who actually expressed out loud his sincerest trepidation that Guam would “capsize.” These are the useful idiots for those at the opposite point, the indescribably evil (but intelligent) ones, like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Most of them however, appear to fall somewhere between the two poles. (At least, this is the best analogy I have so far.)

News from Sacramento out yesterday detailed that California lawmakers had just passed a bill to slash red tape regarding zoning regulations and climate rules to certain establishments to throw up low-income housing, all in an effort to tackle the state’s manufactured and self-created “homeless crisis.” From an AP report via a Bakersfield outlet:

The legislation would rezone land owned by nonprofit colleges and religious institutions, such as churches, mosques, and synagogues, to allow for affordable housing. They would be able to bypass most local permitting and environmental review rules that can be costly and lengthy.

The state Assembly, almost entirely hard-left Democrats who clearly believe that big government is the solution to societal ills given the way they club the common man into compliance with lawfare and regulation, and who profess to be deeply committed to climate change, quickly moved to scrap zoning restrictions established to ensure adjoining properties and parcels complemented one another, as well as “environmental review” constraints, meant to mitigate negative impacts to the environment by any new construction projects… all because it would suit them and their agenda.

Hyp·o·crite: A person who wallows in hypocrisy, the action of espousing moral or ethical standards to which one’s own actions do not conform, accompanied by the excusal of the duplicitous behavior.

Last year, governor Gavin Newsom signed a “sweeping new climate change package” into law; from a NBC Bay Area outlet:

Newsom said the roughly 40 bills -- which also include efforts to capture atmospheric carbon, streamline permitting for solar panel arrays and safely recycle obsolete batteries -- amount to the most aggressive action any state has ever taken to combat climate change.

California ranks number one in the nation for highest income tax, largely to attempt to offset the cost of the socialized schemes mentioned directly above, and comes in first for the most regulations, beating second-place New York by over 100,000 rules on the books; but none of that matters, because it’s not about principle, and California politicians have a problem. For years, they’ve enacted policies that have encouraged homelessness, and coupled with the state’s open border policies and promises of ever-expanding welfare, the people are at a breaking point. These politicians aren’t managing the decline very well; it’s paramount they solve the problem, and quickly. Hordes of foreign-born men with no allegiance to American values can easily be turned into mercenaries, literally or figuratively, so they need to be settled and on standby; and the swarms of druggies need to be stowed somewhere other than the street, at least for now. By eliminating bureaucratic headaches from the equation, they can find cooperative establishments, and advance the “sustainable” agenda of Tetris-like housing in easily-controlled urban areas. Of course, there will be grants, tax breaks, and other taxpayer-funded dollars directed to those willing institutions.

It’s hard to know which of these lawmakers are the hired lackeys, and which are the kingpins, but what we do know about ‘I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine’ arrangements, they doesn’t usually pan out well for the underlings; just ask the Brownshirts.

Image: Lilly_M, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.