Don't think -- emote!

Looks like 2017 is going to be a lot like 2016, at least for the next few weeks. Trump is gonna troll and people are gonna emote, rather than think. First, the trolling:

All of whom revealed themselves in spittle-flecked rage 

Honk if you're a Trump enemy! Maybe you can get a bumper sticker, too!

Meanwhile, there's this outrageous outrage:

House Republicans are moving to adopt a proposal weakening the chamber's outside ethics watchdog, removing its independence and establishing new limitations on its powers.

The House GOP Conference on Monday adopted Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte's (R-Va.) amendment to the larger rules package being voted on Tuesday, the first day of the new Congress.

The amendment puts the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) watchdog under the oversight of lawmakers through the House Ethics Committee.

Point of order: did the ethics watchdog actually make Congress more ethical? Or is it just another bureaucratic gig? The article I've linked doesn't say, nor do the more breathless dispatches I've seen elsewhere. Never mind that, though -- it must be bad, because the usual suspects say it is:

Democrats and ethics watchdog groups blasted the GOP’s move Monday night, which came on a federal holiday and only one day before the full rules package hits the House floor.

“Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp,’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions," Pelosi said in a statement.

"Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress," the House Democratic leader said.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) echoed that sentiment, accusing House Republicans of "signaling a return to the days of Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay."

Oh, yeah -- Tom DeLay. Whatever happened to him, anyway?

An appeals court in Texas has overturned the 2010 conviction of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who had been found guilty of illegally funneling corporate money to Texas candidates during the 2002 campaign cycle.

DeLay, a Republican, had been out on bail while appealing his conviction and the three-year prison sentence he was handed afterward.

But in a 2-1 ruling released Thursday, the state's Third District Court of Appeals says "we conclude that the evidence presented does not support a conclusion that DeLay committed the crimes that were charged. ... The fundamental problem with the State's case was its failure to prove proceeds of criminal activity."

Innocence wasn't the point. The process is the punishment, and unless you are willing to do a Google search on the matter, most people, if they remember Tom DeLay at all, will sense his name is tied to a scandal that wasn't actually a scandal. And never mind that DeLay wouldn't have been in the crosshairs of the office Pelosi created, anyway. None of that matters; just enjoy the ride on the high horse.