States Rights California Style

In his “New Rules” segment of his HBO show Real Time, Bill Maher took a stand against “outside agitators” who are trying to interfere with California’s liberal agenda.

Adopting a good ol’ boy accents while lamenting federal overreach, Bill Maher wrapped up tonight’s Real Time episode with a New Rule: The “States’ Rights” issue now belongs to liberals. Noting that California Gov. Jerry Brown favors a separate climate treaty between his state and China “in defiance of the federal government,” Maher launched into an extended bit about liberals finally getting the chance to tell the feds to keep its hands off.

“We’re just following in a long and hallowed conservative tradition called States’ Rights,” Maher said, setting up the New Rules comic routine that ends each episode. “We believe in sanctuary cities and climate control and women’s rights.” Adopting his best George Wallace drawl, Maher said, “We da rebels now and now we get to talk like this.”

If a smaller Federal Government is what conservatives want, Bill Maher says that’s what they’re getting — but now they can’t complain about it because it’s called “states’ rights.”

“Now that Gov. Jerry Brown of California is signing separate climate changing treaties with China in defiance of our federal government, conservatives can’t complain,” Maher said on his HBO show “Real Time” on Sunday night.

“They can’t complain when our local law enforcement refuses to cooperate with Trump’s deportation squad. They can’t grouse about California cities threatening to deny contracts to any firm that helps build the border wall. They can’t get mad because we’re just following in a long and hallowed conservative tradition called states’ rights.”

Maher pointed out that the script has flipped from what it was the 1960s, when Alabama Gov. George Wallace physically blocked the door of the University of Alabama to prevent black kids from enrolling.

“Now the white supremacists are the Federal Government, and it’s liberal states that are under siege from federal overreach,” Maher said. “We are trying to defend our way of life here and what we believe in. We believe in sanctuary cities and pollution control and legalized pot and gun control and Obamacare and a woman’s right to choose… and we’re going to defend them. We da rebels now!”

Maher did his best deep-south accent to make his point. “We don’t need no outside agitators with their ‘Make America Great Again’ caps coming in here to our clean state and telling us to take down our solar panels,” he said with an over-the-top drawl. “And in our state, we use Tiki torches the way they’re supposed to be used — for lesbian weddings on the beach.”

Digby has an article from the LA Times about the passage of a bill by the California state legislature that would counter the deportation orders by the Trump administration.

The legislation by Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), the most far-reaching of its kind in the country, would limit state and local law enforcement communication with federal immigration authorities, and prevent officers from questioning and holding people on immigration violations.

After passionate debate in both houses of the Legislature, staunch opposition from Republican sheriffs and threats from Trump administration officials against sanctuary cities, Senate Bill 54 was approved Saturday with a 27-11 vote along party lines. But the bill sent to Gov. Jerry Brown drastically scaled back the version first introduced, the result of tough negotiations between Brown and De León in the final weeks of the legislative session.

The decision came hours after a federal judge in Chicago blocked the Trump administration’s move to withhold Justice Department grant funds to discourage so-called sanctuary city policies.

Digby is right. This is definitely going to see the inside of a court room.