Foreign desk: Iranians Shatter an NY Times Myth

So much for the myth — propagated in November by New York Times Tehran bureau chief Thomas Erdbrink — that the Iranian people have closed ranks behind their rulers. Commentary’s Sohrab Ahmari notes that Erdbrink blamed “Trumpian and Saudi bellicosity” for that supposed development, and his theory “proved wildly popular with the pro-nuclear deal crowd in Washington.” But the world now sees tens of thousands of Iranians taking “to the streets to register their anger, not at Donald Trump or the House of Saud, but at the mullahs and their security apparatus.” The outcome may be hard to predict, but one thing now is abundantly clear: Donald Trump has not “revived the regime’s popularity at home.”

Media critic: Why Press Can’t Cover Iran Protests

“Why aren’t the protests in Iran making headlines?” asks Lee Smith at Tablet. His answer: US media are “incapable of covering the story, because [their] resources and available storylines for Iran reporting and expertise were shaped by two powerful official forces — the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Obama White House.” And “without government minders providing them with storylines and experts, American reporters are simply lost — and it shows.” Moreover, “only regime-friendly Western journalists are allowed to report from Iran,” a point driven home by the two-year detention of The Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian. But while news media may be reluctant to send reporters to Iran, “that’s hardly an excuse for virtually ignoring a story that threatens to turn the past eight years of conventional wisdom about Iran on its head.”

Political scribe: Dems Are Confident — Just Like in 2016

Talk swirls in political circles of Democrats “winning the House of Representatives, even halting the juggernaut of conservative judges streaming through the Senate,” notes The Washington Post’s David Von Drehle. In fact, he says, “Democrats are more confident than I’ve seen them since . . . Since Nov. 8, 2016.” So to “achieve their dreams of an anti-Trump wave, Democrats have a lot of work to do.” And he doesn’t see a lot of “fresh thinking and diligence at this point in the cycle.” Fact is, the past year has “changed no opinions on the topic of Trump — which suggests to me that he might very well win again if an election were held today.” Moreover, this year’s crop of GOP candidates “will not all be as loopy and as creepy as Roy Moore.” Dems must decide “whether to be true to an ideology or flexible in creating coalitions.” Republicans showed ideological flexibility in backing Trump. “Now Democrats must decide how big they are willing to make their own tent.”

Business writer: Licensing Makes It Harder To Relocate

Since the 19th century, says Bloomberg’s Virginia Postrel, the United States has been “a continentwide single market with free movement across state lines.” But “that calculus is changing” as personal services make up “a higher proportion of jobs.” Increasingly, “Americans are not moving to where their skills are most in demand.” Moreover, “about one in four Americans work in jobs that require licenses, up from a mere 5 percent in 1950.” Add to that the fact that “each state determines its own licensing requirements,” and “a licensed professional in one state may find it hard to move to another.” But that could be eased by “national tests and state compacts for reciprocal licensing.” Fact is, “you don’t have to be skeptical of licensing in general to question why electricians, hairdressers and pharmacists can’t take their licenses with them.”

From the right: Dem Rhetoric on Tax Law Is Just Silly

Steven Greenhut at Reason cites a businessman acquaintance who says well-off folks like him can afford their lifestyle. So “when the government taxes them at a higher rate, that simply means they have less money to expand their business. It won’t force them to subsist on macaroni and cheese.” That’s what Democrats fail to understand: “The left wants to punish the rich, but defending higher taxes mainly punishes everyone else.” Says Greenhut: “The bill pushes in a lower-tax direction and rebukes the Democratic class-war nonsense. Who really cares how rich people spend their own money? We should all be more concerned about encouraging them to invest in their businesses.”

— Compiled by Eric Fettmann