There’s no better illustration of California’s decline into woke and anti-business craziness than this: the California Coastal Commission voted to deny permission for Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the U.S. Air Force to increase the number of launches planned at Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara.

The rejection was based on petty politics, hidden by a fig leaf of regulatory concern. “We’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race,” Commission Chair Caryl Hart said. Her colleague Mike Wilson railed against Musk’s wealth and his social media platform, X. Former union official Gretchen Newsom (no relation to California’s governor) railed against Musk “spewing and tweeting political falsehoods.”

None of the objections had anything to do with putting rockets into orbit.

The Commission’s rejection strikes at a company that has revitalized California’s aerospace industry.  In 20 years, Musk turned his SpaceX startup into a $210-billion behemoth currently employing 13,000 Californians.

Before granting approval of SpaceX’s plans, the CCC demanded the USAF agree to seven demands  including more monitoring of the impacts of launches on a colony of local snowy plover birds.

Apparently, California politicians believe that these birds are of greater concern than our nation’s national security.