Last night Gavin Newsom took over Dodger Stadium to give an ostensible State of the State speech. Make no mistake, after watching Governor Hairgel telling Californians about how wonderful California is because of him and the stagecraft that went into this production, be prepared. Newsom is making his bid for President.

From opening moments of a mini-sermon from a black pastor [possibly to blunt any memory of this? … ed.] to the usual Democrat apparatchiks appearing on the giant screens flanking Newsom to verbally lick his ankles, one was struck with the Hollywood-esque production values that went to staging this. Typically, the governor’s State of the State address is a low-key affair taking place during the afternoon in Sacramento with an actual report on what the previous year wrought for the state.

However, this was a primetime production where California’s Mad King could pontificate, to dramatically gesture to the empty seats behind them while intoning

54,395 Californians we now mourn with broken hearts.

That’s almost the same number of empty seats behind me, marking a silent tribute to loved ones who live forever in our memories.

Newsom’s speech was long on listing things he touts as positives — while watching Californians wondered what state he was talking about — while short on any facts on what footing California currently finds itself.

While others competed to buy personal protective equipment at exorbitant prices—we quickly built our own pipeline, supplying critical gear to millions of essential workers.

Yet for those of us with memories that go back more than 11 months ago we remember Newsom’s dismissal of anyone wanting to find out about his secret $1 billion deal with China over that PPE.

Newsom even touted CA’s gun-restrictions and so-called criminal justice reform as positives! Crime has accelerated upwards since Props 47 and 57 and with scofflaws like George Gascon, violent crime is up. In Los Angeles, shootings are up 88% and murders 39%.

And the facepalm-worthy hits just kept coming. Newsom thanked Biden for the Wuhan Lab Lung Rot vaxx. He praised St. Fauci for the “science – not politics – (that) drove our decisions.” Nevermind that Newsom has refused to share the data that has driven his fiats — because many of them were never about “science”.

He is taking credit for finally allowing some schools to reopen long after real science has said schools are not a source of infection.

Newsom even attempted to attribute the success of the Mars’ rover, Perseverance, to California.

But peak-Newsom – for any Californian small business owner, for the 2 million plus Californians who have lost their careers due to AB5, for any Californian who may dream of opening a business but for the high fees and daunting and contradictory regulatory barriers – was this claim from Newsom’s piehole. It must have caused crockery-flinging of epic proportions:

We’ll keep the dream alive, not only for families but for all the small businesses who’ve fought to survive over the past year.

The special mix of audacity, human capital, and creativity found only in California means there’s literally no better place to do business.

I’m literally wondering how much coke Gavin is snorting.

What is very troubling is Newsom’s claim that we can never go back to “normal” because

Normal was never good enough. Normal accepts inequity.

EQUITY. Holy frijoles. The Leftwing buzzword that means equality of outcome. Newsom announcing that Covid has given him the special dispensation to move to ridding California of the last vestiges of American Constitutional principles.

Last act of this obscene Presidential campaign speech was Newsom’s wife coming over to take his hand, the soft strains of Guthrie’s “California Stars” swells as they turn to walk off – not off camera, but directly away from the camera across the grass toward the empty seats. Fade to black.

This was Newsom’s middle finger, not just to the Recall campaign, but to every rational Californian who was listening.

My fellow Americans, you have been warned.

UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers!

featured image, screenshot and composite by Darleen Click