The internet has been buzzing with the latest evidence of the sexual perversion endemic in the inner circles of Washington and New York. Such morally corrupt individuals, leading double lives and subject to blackmail like serial pederast Dennis Hastert, have no business serving in positions of public trust. Formal investigation and exposure of these activities, involving high-ranking officials and their associates, is required to "drain the swamp" and restore honest government. Many interesting facts have been revealed, along with plenty of speculation and misdirection. Here's a brief summary.

The recent exposure* began with a "sexting" scandal involving New York congressman Anthony Weiner and an underage girl. Weiner is the husband of Hillary Clinton's closest "personal aide" Huma Abedin, who began serving Ms. Clinton at the age of 19. It was discovered that Secretary Clinton and her aides had been "carelessly" conducting State Dept business using an illicit, unsecured private email server in order to hide her various activities. Many of the Clinton emails were then published by Wikileaks, followed by an email dump from John Podesta, another long time aide and chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign. This trove of leaked and/or hacked emails includes shocking evidence of collusion, hypocrisy, malfeasance -- and more.

Shortly before his untimely death in 2012, reporter and investigator Andrew Breitbart publicly accused John Podesta, founder of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress, of helping to "cover up" the alleged child trafficking activities of the now-defunct ACORN organization. In an interview with Slate, he asked "What’s in your closet, John Podesta?". The question is still valid.

John Podesta and his brother, DC lobbyist Tony Podesta, share a taste for deviant, sexually explicit and disturbing artwork, some of which is proudly displayed at Tony Podesta's home. Two of their favorite "artists" are the notorious Marina Abramovic and Biljana Djurdjevic. The Podestas have social ties with DC businessman James Alefantis, chairman of the "Transformer" art gallery and owner of the "Buck's Fishing and Camping" restaurant and the nearby "Comet Ping Pong" pizza restaurant, which hosts fundraisers for Democrat candidates. Comet also features bizarre artwork and sexually themed performances totally unsuited for a "family friendly" pizza place.

James Alefantis is a homosexual partner of Democrat political operative David Brock, founder of the Soros-funded Media Matters organization. The "Comet Ping Pong" Instagram collection posted by Alefantis ("jimmycomet") and his employees, including barman "joshuaryanv", features dozens of explicit, pizza-themed homosex images. Alefantis chose an image of emperor Hadrian's boy lover as his icon. Why would a gay bar pretend to be a "kid friendly" pizza place? What are these "bucks" really fishing for, and what kind of "ping pong" are they playing?

The leaked Clinton and Podesta emails include dozens of peculiar references to "pizza" and "hot dogs" which make no sense in the context of the messages. Why would wealthy and powerful political operatives, who belong to exclusive clubs and dine at the finest restaurants, be so obsessed with "pizza" and "hot dogs"? Why was Alefantis listed by GQ Magazine as one of the "top 50" influential people in Washington DC? Published FBI guidelines for the coded language and symbols typically used to mask illicit sexual activity provide a clue. When these are used to decode the messages, a very disturbing pattern appears.

For instance, the "Besta Pizza" restaurant -- located next door to Buck's Fishing and Comet Ping Pong -- featured a spiral triangle in its company logo. After it was pointed out that this matches the symbol for "boy lover" identified by the FBI, the logo was quickly modified and the inner triangle was erased. Why change it, at considerable cost to reprint signs and menus, if there was nothing to hide?

Investigative journalist Yoichi Shimatsu has produced a lengthy series of reports on this scandal. He assumes that the reader is already familiar with the major events, and his story includes both facts and speculation. Let the reader decide. Hopefully, this will lead to demands for a formal investigation.

See the Yoichi Shimatsu series on "PizzaGate": part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10

* A decade ago, New York financier Jeffery Epstein, who hosted sex parties for the rich and famous on his private Caribbean island, was convicted of "soliciting prostitution from underage girls". Bill Clinton, a fellow CFR member and one of Epstein's frequent guests, traveled at least a dozen times on Epstein's private jet. A resident of the exclusive Palm Beach community, Epstein was also a member of Donald Trump's famous Mar-a-Lago club, and one of his accusers is a young woman who previously worked at the club. A few years before the scandal was exposed, Trump said in an interview: "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with."