Where nothing in the cursed year of 2016 made sense, 2017 is mostly just … frightening.
Maybe Courtney Stodden is the hero we’ve needed all along.
Billy Bush is related to two US Presidents and he’s been on television a lot.
Since last October, however, he’s been indelibly associated with Donald Trump and his comments about sexual assault.
Courtney Stodden, like most of America, was outraged then and she’s rightly outraged now.
So, when she saw his face on a magazine cover, she decided to make a statement.
And that’s how we got this photo of her, flipping the bird at Billy Bush, right there in the store.
Apparently, when you’re a celebrity, the store clerks let you do it.
We can’t imagine that Billy Bush ever imagined that he’d have a more odious political association than with either President Bush.
That was before the 2016 election, of course.
“I just start kissing [women]. It’s like a magnet,” Trump infamously said. “Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab them by the p—y. You can do anything.”
Billy Bush just laughed instead of, you know, reacting with horror at what he was hearing.
He got blasted in the press after the tape leaked. He also got fired.
It turns out that just sitting back and laughing while someone brags about sex crimes doesn’t reflect well on you as a person, let alone your network.
Billy Bush’s own daughter was apparently disappointed to hear her father’s role in that creepy conversation.
He’s since expressed his regrets for not at least changing the subject.
It’s hard to feel sorry for the guy, though.
He wasn’t a secretary or some random producer — he’s Billy Bush, and could have, as Trump’s peer, called him out on bragging about sexual assault.
Of course, so could a larger chunk of the American people.
We still remember fringe conservative commentators scrambling to dismiss the comments as “locker room talk.”
Buddy, if you hear somebody boasting about sexual assault in a locker room, you need to call the police.
And maybe start going to a different gym.
The talk of p—y-grabbing was one of those many moments during the 2016 campaign that shocked people by not being the death spiral of Trump’s candidacy.
But so was failing to immediately disavow the KKK.
So was the whole unusual enthusiasm from white supremacists in general thing.
But Courtney broke the “dumb blonde” stereotypes by being totally aware of what was going on and where to draw the line.
Can “woke blonde” be a new stereotype?
Courtney’s been outspoken about politics before.
Actually, she’s posted very specifically about Billy Bush back in October, to celebrate his firing from NBC.
During the primaries, she was a vocal supporter of Bernie Sanders.
After Bernie got about 4 million fewer votes in the primaries, Courtney supported Hillary Clinton’s campaign right up through the election.
She’s someone who cares about the world and the future.
We know that she’s been having a rough go of it lately, but we have to wonder if she has a future as a political commentator.
Let us dream, okay?
