Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Trump's tax plan was rolled out by two former Goldman Sach's guys who kept promising us we'll get the details later. That seems to be a recurring theme.
• The raising of the standard deduction for couples to $24,000 seems like a big deal for the common man. But the housing industry didn't like it. One incentive to buy a home is the mortgage interest deduction. But if your total itemized deductions, even with the mortgage deduction, doesn't crack $24,000, the mortgage interest deduction doesn't matter. You just take the standard deduction instead.
• Good for the wealthy: Corporate tax rate of 15%, and the elimination of the estate tax.
• And Another (Texas): 
  
• And Another who was found not guilty by a judge yesterday (Lousiana):
  
• The Texas House, in their late-into-the-night debate last night on Sanctuary Cities, approved an amendment allowing officers to ask a person legally detained about their immigration status. That law is probably unconstitutional because the Supreme Court has made is specifically clear that all actions during a detention must be limited to the purpose of the detention. Asking about a person's immigration status is unrelated to, say, a detention for a traffic violation. (And DPS has already been accused of violating that leading Supreme Court opinion in the context of handling illegal immigrants during traffic stops.)
• The feds raided TV preacher Benny Hinn's offices in Grapevine yesterday. Hey, I think most of the TV guys are modern day snake oil salesmen of The Feel Good Gospel (Joel Osteen, Robert Jeffress, Ed Young, etc.), but I get real uncomfortable when I see the government raiding a church. They better have a good reason. 
• Random Sports Observation: In the ten school Big 12, only seven schools have women's softball programs.  West Virginia, Kansas State, and (amazingly) TCU do not.
• Trump softens on NAFTA. Let me guess, we'll get the details later.
  
• DeMarcus Ware "retired as a Cowboy this week". Hot sports opinion: Charles Haley ᐳ DeMarcus Ware, and it isn't even close. 
• The Star-Telegram is working blue this morning on its home page. (And this isn't even a local story. It's out of Florida.):
  
  
  
  
• The NFL Draft is tonight, and The Ticket said this morning there used to not be a time limit on the teams to make their pick. As proof, they said Dallas once took six hours to evaluate the health of Mel Renfro before taking him. It seems to be true. What a beating. 
• A Morning News letter to the editor -- Preach on, bruther! cc: Pete Delkus:
  
• One of the funniest bits I had seen in a while were two "fake strongmen" who conned their way onto a morning local TV show. They are now being sued.