Typical Dictator Behavior

Dictators around the world have tended to share a number of best practices throughout history. Perhaps most prominent is the tendency, upon seizing power, to bestow the spoils of the office onto those who helped them take control. Among African dictators and Middle Eastern tyrants, the looting of the treasury and of foreign aid money is especially acute, since tribe and sect play such a critical role in identity and in maintaining loyalty there.

If we were to search for a current example, and we were to look for a situation where a person, upon taking power, began to loot the country's treasury and to usurp contract law in order to pay off friends, cronies and various constituencies, where might we look?

Table that thought for a moment while I make these points:

1)The average Democratic congressional district is receiving TWICE what the average Republican congressional district is from the $800 billion stimulus package that passed last spring. So, not only is the stimulus not working, as evidenced by 10% unemployment and zero job creation, it is serving as a massive redistribution of wealth from all taxpayers to Obama supporters.

2)Most of the ambassadorships that Obama has given out have been to his biggest campaign contributors. So, we are represented abroad by people who are there as payback for their political support.

3)Obama violated the most basic tenets of contract law and private property rights when he seized the assets of General Motors and gave them to the auto workers' unions at the expense of secured creditors...whom he called "speculators."

4)By appointing "czars" and giving them billions of dollars to spend, Obama can avoid having them vetted by the Senate, which is customary for cabinet members, per that document known as The Constitution.

5)Using a takeover of health care, Obama can unionize another 16% of our economy and have control over doctors and nurses and therefore our most personal and private health information.

Back to my original question: Where might we find examples of typical dictator behavior today?