The things you learn on the interwebs.

Hillary fans continue to have bizarre emotional meltdowns all these months later, as a writer for The Nation discovered.



On Thursday afternoon, Senator Bernie Sanders voted against legislation to put new sanctions on both Russia and Iran. He voted for a Russia-only sanctions bill, but opposed the final bill’s inclusion of new sanctions on Iran because, like John Kerry, he feared it would endanger the 2015 nuclear deal.

I tweeted out a screengrab of Sanders’ statement saying as much, and noted that he was one of only two senators to vote no. Then I went about my business. When I checked Twitter an hour later, all hell had broken loose.

BERNIE

SANDERS

IS

A

RUSSIAN

ASSET. https://t.co/BIvkNv93z7 — Sir James The Second (@JKH2) June 15, 2017

Bernie Sanders also doesn't want to upset his buddy Putin. https://t.co/xC5lL51oY2 — Matt Murphy (@MattMurph24) June 15, 2017

it's time to start wondering if Bernie isn't working with trump/russia too... seriously. — JP (@JermePhilip) June 15, 2017

sanders took $$$ from the russian PAC, he needs to be investigated for his role in russiagate, like his spreading fake news & proaganda — mark john junor (@markjunor3) June 15, 2017

@gzornick BECAUSE SANDERS WORKED WITH RUSSIA PLUS MORE. — Vikkie Suie (@suievikkie) June 15, 2017

﻿ So how did people jump to this conclusion that Bernie Sanders, by opposing Democrats, must ipso facto be working at the behest of Russia? It wasn’t entirely organic. And it points to how fake news can infect some of our brethren on the left.

Blame starts with the people with megaphones that peddle this nonsense. Eric Garland, who became a Twitter celebrity with his bizarre “game theory” thread, has explicitly tied Sanders to Russia in his threads. So has Melissa McEwan on her Shakesville blog. “Bernie Sanders, who has visited Russia, has not been, to my knowledge, suspected of being vulnerable by Russian kompromat cultivated on his visits, unlike Donald Trump. But, as I said above, if I intend to say something, I will state it plainly, and here I am plainly stating that I do believe these connections warrant more scrutiny,” she wrote. The Palmer Report, which churns out Russia-related fake news by the pixel load, wrote a post in April: “Bernie Sanders must disclose what he knows about his campaign adviser Tad Devine and Russia.” And of course, uber-grifter Louise Mensch has joined the conspiracy theorists.

The "if you don't hate Russia you are a Russian agent" hysteria has become absolutely pathological for Democrats.

One day in the future these people will look back and be embarrassed, like seeing old pictures of yourself with a mullet.

The attack and smear Bernie campaign starts far, far above the level of tweets.

The NY Times, for example, has been busy smearing Bernie this week.

Of course the source of this campaign is predictable.



On the simplest level, for Sanders to have defied the anti-Russia hysteria constantly pushed by the Democratic party is tantamount to treason. How dare he take a cautious, de-escalating stance on such a major issue! Mainline Democrats are already eager to blame Sanders for everything else, so why not turn this small political action into a major snafu?

One of the biggest critics of Sanders’ vote was Peter Daou, the definition of a centrist extremist if there ever was one. Daou served as an adviser for Clinton in 2008 and is known online for his extreme loyalty to the Democratic establishment. As such, he was eager to tear Sanders for standing against the party line.

Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul were the ONLY TWO VOTES **AGAINST** the Russia sanctions bill. Bernie was out of sync with every Dem senator. https://t.co/3DnLWiOtav — Peter Daou (@peterdaou) June 15, 2017

As Shaun King pointed out this week, real progressives like Bernie aren't welcome in today's Democratic Party.