The Corrupt Leading the Blind

Summary: Modern authoritarian takeovers don't need tanks—they need personnel departments. While everyone watches for obvious fascism, the real coup happens through systematic replacement of competent officials with unqualified loyalists who owe everything to their benefactor. Trump fired inspectors general investigating his administration, sold ambassadorships for donations, and installed family members in key positions. Schedule F would let him replace 50,000 federal employees overnight with political appointees. The pattern is global: control the hiring, control the institutions, control the country. We're watching for martial law while they're posting job listings. By the time the obvious tyranny arrives, everyone who could stop it already got fired.

A Coup Hidden in Plain Sight

While everyone's watching for the obvious signs—canceled elections, midnight arrests—something quieter happens in conference rooms and personnel departments. By the time you notice the pattern, you're already living in the aftermath. Wait... midnight arrests by unidentified masked people with no warrant. Deploying our military in LA and D. C..

The Genius Is in the Boring

Five inspectors general left their posts over six weeks in 2019. Friday night announcements. Minimal coverage. The investigations they were running—arms deals, nuclear transfers, foreign aid—concluded shortly after.

Career prosecutors found themselves replaced. A wedding planner started organizing HUD programs. A 24-year-old caddy joined the drug policy office. A bodyguard moved to the EPA.

These aren't random data points. They're a pattern as old as power itself. Caligula's horse became consul. The message wasn't about the horse.

The Gratitude Economy

There's a logic to hiring people who couldn't get the job anywhere else. Options create independence. Desperation creates loyalty.

A qualified FDA scientist might refuse to approve a donor's drug. An unqualified one might not know they can refuse. A career diplomat might report illegal orders. A million-dollar donor might not recognize them as illegal.

The math is simple: competence costs more than loyalty pays.

The Family Planning

Every system eventually becomes a family business if you wait long enough.

The Somoza family accumulated 20% of Nicaragua's arable land. The Marcos family's wealth topped $10 billion. These things happen gradually, then suddenly.

Consider the numbers: $800 million in federally-backed loans here. Trademarks worth millions there. $1.4 million in Secret Service payments to family properties. Not hidden. Posted on social media. Transparency as its own form of power.

The Price List

Commerce Secretary: Net worth $1 billion minimum Education Secretary: $200 million family donation UK Ambassador: $350,000 to inauguration EU Ambassador: $1 million to inauguration

Gordon Sondland testified under oath that he bought his ambassadorship. Six others were investigated for similar arrangements. The going rate for White House meetings became semi-public: $100,000 for coffee.

This isn't corruption hiding in shadows. It's a business model with receipts.

The Numbers Game

215 criminal indictments. 40 people charged. 15 guilty pleas. 29 years of combined sentences.

For context: the previous administration saw zero indictments over eight years. This one averaged one every two weeks.

These aren't accusations. They're convictions. Court records. Public documents.

Schedule F: The Architecture

A single executive order that would reclassify 50,000 federal positions as political appointments. No cause needed for termination. No appeals process.

Every FDA scientist. Every EPA researcher. Every FBI investigator. Replaceable overnight.

The infrastructure already exists. The order was signed once, three weeks before the 2020 election ended. The promise to sign it again on Day One has been made publicly. Repeatedly.

The Cost of Amateur Hour

Turkey's currency dropped 47% after certain appointments. Venezuela's inflation hit seven digits under particular leadership. These aren't political opinions. They're economic data.

During the pandemic, internal estimates suggested 40% of American deaths were preventable with different responses. That's not ideology. That's arithmetic.

Incompetence at the DMV costs you an afternoon. Incompetence elsewhere has different costs.

The Rubicon in Reverse

Once you control who gets hired and fired, other controls become unnecessary.

Look at the patterns:

• Russia 2024: Every judge and prosecutor serves at pleasure
• Hungary 2024: Media ownership concentrated, election boards appointed, judiciary restructured
• Turkey 2024: 50,000 prosecutions for "insulting" leadership

The sequence is always the same: First the personnel, then the processes, then the outcomes.

The Geography Lesson

Consider which cities make certain lists and which don't:

Named as "war zones": New York (5.94 murders per 100,000), Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland

Not mentioned: Jacksonville (19.78 per 100,000), Tulsa (19.64), Fresno (14.09), Oklahoma City (11.16), Bakersfield (11.91)

The pattern becomes clearer with voting data. Wayne County helped flip Michigan in 2020 by over 300,000 votes. Every city on the target list voted one way. Every city ignored voted another.

Murder rates in certain states have exceeded others by 23% on average since 2000. Eight of the ten highest homicide states in 2020 voted the same way. Mississippi's rate quadruples New York's.

Meanwhile, crime is dropping in the targeted cities. New York down 3%. Baltimore homicides down 40% from 2019. Philadelphia homicides down 40% in 2024.

The data suggests this isn't about public safety metrics. It's about electoral mathematics.

The Quiet Part

We keep watching for dramatic endings—martial law, suspended elections, midnight raids. Wait, midnight raids... But that's like waiting for a heart attack while ignoring cholesterol.

The real work happens in HR departments and org charts. In personnel announcements that nobody reads. In Friday night firings that nobody remembers by Monday.

Schedule F sits in a drawer, ready for a signature. Fifty thousand positions, one executive order, twenty-four hours.

The infrastructure is built. The precedents are set. The promises are public.

The question isn't whether it could happen. The question is whether we'd notice if it already started.