YA THINK? New York City used to be a national punchline. If we elect Anthony Weiner, it will be again.

RADLEY BALKO ON FACEBOOK: “If we punished racism by the amount of real harm it has caused, Paula Deen would get a verbal scolding. Michael Bloomberg would be homeless.”

WELL, THEY GENERALLY SEEM TO SIDE WITH TYRANTS: Hollywood helped Adolf Hitler with Nazi propaganda drive, academic claims.

AMERICAN THINKER: Where Are The Boys?

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Video Games.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Andrew Pochter, RIP.

DAILY BEAST: The Age of Obama: A Stronger Government And A Weaker America. Well, that’s been the plan all along.

What does Obama get in return for his push for big government? A government that loves him back. Unlike the financial, insurance and real-estate industries that have been fickle about him — showering him with hosannas and cash in 2008, while offering a relative trickle of support in 2012—Obama remains the living end for government workers.

IRS employees donated to Obama over Romney by a 4-to-1 margin, IRS attorneys favored Obama by 20-to-1, and government lawyers at the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Education shut out the Romney campaign completely. The federal bureaucracy had effectively lined up against nearly half the country.

Meanwhile, the White House press secretary dissembles daily; the intelligence community appears incapable of delivering a complete and truthful answer to Congress, and IRS employees apparently enjoyed a giant tax payer funded party catered by Wolfgang Puck.

Given this totality, public distrust of Washington should come as no surprise.

For the record, spending $2.4 million on an Olympics-themed confab, complete with an open bar while America’s housing market was crashing, is not prudent. Using credit cards to buy bottles of wine and $140 dinners is not what we want from the IRS’s green-eyeshade brigade. Trust, what’s that?

They prefer that you don’t trust them. Then you’re less shocked and angry and inclined to do something when the scandals come out.

PAUL MIRENGOFF: Does Rubio Have A Future As A National Candidate? My answer: Yes, but he’s hurt himself quite a bit.

What’s more, they were unforced rookie errors born of a combination of hubris and naivete. A word of advice for other freshmen: Schumer, Reid, et al., have been fleecing the naive for decades. Going into the backroom with them is dangerous. Like they say in poker, if you look around the table and you don’t know who the mark is, you’re the mark. Or, in this case, the Marco.

THE BBC ON THE EGYPT MARCHES: “The number of people protesting today is the largest number in a political event in the history of mankind.”

GOOD: Los Angeles Times to Feds: Respect Campus Speech.

SANDMONKEY: Dear World, pay attention: Muslims protesting in the millions against Islamism. This is Historic.

Check out this pic. Wow.

UPDATE: How’s that “smart diplomacy” workin’ out for ya?

The demonstrators maintain Morsi has become a power-hungry autocrat who is intent on making the Muslim Brotherhood Egypt’s permanent ruling party.

They also blame the Obama administration and U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson for propping up Morsi and facilitating the Muslim Brotherhood’s power grab.

“We are very critical of the Obama administration because they have been supporting the Brotherhood like no one has ever supported them,” Shadi Al Ghazali Harb, a 24-year-old member of Egypt’s Revolutionary Youth Coalition, told the Washington Free Beacon on Friday afternoon during a telephone interview from Cairo.

The White House is “the main supporter of the Brotherhood,” he said. “If it wasn’t for the American support this president would have fallen months ago.”

Al Ghazali Harb specifically dubbed Patterson “the first enemy of the revolution,” claiming “she is hated even more than Morsi.”

Ouch. If it’s any consolation, a lot of us aren’t so crazy about her either. . . .

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Saw the photos of the protest marches in Eqypt. Time to walk like an Egyptian.” Yeah, the Tea Party marches in DC a couple of years ago were huge, but this is much bigger — and in every city.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More: “What is bizarre is that Obama hasn’t just tolerated the Brotherhood’s rise to power, he has abetted it. It would be defensible to argue that we have little power to influence events in Egypt, and, moreover, attempts on our part to exercise influence are likely to backfire; therefore we should stand aside and do nothing. But why Obama would consider it a good idea to put America’s thumb on the scale on the side of the Brotherhood is beyond me.”

NEWEST FOOT SOLDIERS FOR OBAMACARE: Librarians.

AT AMAZON, coupons galore in Grocery & Gourmet Food.

SCIENCE: Study: College-Aged Women Don’t Want To Be Friends With Sluts. But college-aged men have more liberal ideas.

SIGN IN TAHRIR SQUARE: Wake Up, America: Obama Backs Up A Fascist Regime In Egypt.

MASSIVE DECENTRALIZATION: Tyler Cowen: What is the political equilibrium when insect-sized drone assassins are available?

Related: The Political Economy of Drones.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: What The WHAT: The In-N-Out ‘Monkey Style’ Burger Exists (And You’ll Definitely Want One).

AS DO MANY: With The Environment, Paul Krugman Forgets the Poor.

ALL OVER EGYPT, MASS POLITICAL PROTESTS. Here’s a crowd pic from Egyptian TV.

ROGER KIMBALL: Kenneth Minogue, 1930–2013.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 52.

REMINDER: IRS Chief Confirms Targeting of Tea Party Groups.

“BAD OPTICS” IN TEXAS. (Via Twitchy.)

AT AMAZON, top deals in Camera, Photo & Video.

Also, today only: Vanguard Endeavor ED 8×42 Binoculars, $209.99 (50% off).

UPDATE: Kingsley Browne emails: “I just bought the binoculars you linked to. There is an additional rebate on the binoculars, so that the price after rebate is just $159.” Cool!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Richard Russell emails:

Got them for $159 with the rebate. All the reviews said they were great value at $349.

One of your better ones!

We aim to please.