In a Politico article from 2009 - the reporter attended dinner at Podesta's - Podesta tells of slaughtering pigs during his college days.
This isn't direct evidence of anything, but is still useful to know about Podesta and keep in mind as more substantial evidence is considered, IMO. For one thing, consider the callousness Podesta seems to show. He seems to credit his brother for the painting on the wall of his office of men about to eat another man, but this article shows that he seems to think that way as well.
From Politico:
"Talk of pig roasting and slaughter kept popping up during dinner and was the last tale Podesta told before the guests left. To earn money while attending law school at Georgetown, he spent two years working at Turkey Run Farm in McLean, now called the Claude Moore Colonial Farm, an 18th-century re-creation."
"Standing in the kitchen and acting out his role, Podesta explained: “It’s best to do the butchering at 4 a.m., “because pigs should be slaughtered when it is cool, and it takes a long time to roast them. The pig is hauled on a front-end loader in order to split and gut it. It’s most important to slow the pig down by shooting it between the eyes so you can cut its throat. It makes the pig less ornery and a whole lot more cooperative than if you just stick a knife in its throat.”
"In homage to these skills, Podesta used to have a picture of a pig on a spit as his screen saver, but his staffers made him get rid of it, because he said: “They couldn’t stand looking into the pig’s eyes during meetings.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2009/07/john-podesta-a-seasoned-hand-024575?o=2
view the rest of the comments →
Psalm100 ago
I went looking for more information that might be out there about Podesta slaughtering pigs, and came up with one blog that mentioned it at the time of the story:
https://internetfoodassociation.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/killer-of-pigs/
The blog entry is by Matthew Yglesias, the well-known liberal who is now at Vox. In 2009, he was working for Podesta at the Center for American Progress. He titled an entry "Killer of Pigs," and wrote:
"You may know John Podesta as the founder and CEO of the Center for American Progress and a former White House Chief of Staff. But my boss is, as Politico points out, first and foremost a brutal killer," and "This kind of talk is a good way to maintain discipline around the office."
The blog Yglesias is writing on is called, "The Internet Food Association," and while sounding like something connected to the food industry, it's actually a blog for "music reviewers and online organizers. Political pundits and network security experts. Health policy writers and programmers." Ezra Klein is another one of the bloggers. And the focus of the blog is DC.
So I looked up Comet Ping Pong on the blog and found this single line entry from 2009:
"One thing’s certain: Comet is really far from where most of Washingtonian‘s readers live." That's a play on the Washingtonian's motto, " The Magazine Washington Lives By." The entry linked to an image that is no longer available, but the address is "http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6007/pizzapoolchart2.jpg."
"Pizza pool chart" sounded like some sort of contest, and that's what it turned out to be. Only the main page for it is missing now:
"Who makes the best pizza in Washington? You tell us! Today, voting begins on the first Washingtonian.com Pizza Pool, a brackets-style contest that will narrow 32 pizzas to one winner. For a refresher on how the brackets will work, head here." But the link is broken, and a message says, "Page Does Not Exist, But Here Are 404 Pandas For Your Enjoyment." And there are 404 little pandas on the page. Haven't pandas been showing up quite a bit in pizzagate?
The page for the contest between Comet Pizza and a place called Piola, which Comet lost, still exists, though:
https://www.washingtonian.com/2009/08/11/the-pizza-pool-comet-ping-pong-vs-piola/
It doesn't give what the score was. But you have to wonder, since there were 32 pizza places involved, why the OFA blog would comment that "One thing’s certain: Comet is really far from where most of Washingtonian‘s readers live." Isn't it a beloved neighborhood pizza parlor that serves great pizza? So what prompted that comment? Given the jimmycomet Instagram account and the acts known to perform there, perhaps Comet also has a reputation for being a seedy place.