The Federal Machine: A Timeline of Colonization, Exploitation

7-16-2025

The Federal Machine: A Timeline of Colonization, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of the People

From the very start, the U.S. federal government has operated under a mask of liberty and democracy while acting as a machine for colonization, suppression, and corporate enrichment. It did not evolve into corruption—it was architected this way. This is not a failure of governance. It is the success of a design built to serve elites, not the people.

1776–1887: Founding for the Few

- Declaration of Independence (1776) declares liberty while preserving slavery and exclusion of Indigenous nations, women, and the working poor.

- Constitution (1787) : Written by wealthy landowners to preserve wealth and power.

- Created the Electoral College to buffer elite control.

- Enshrined the Three-Fifths Compromise and ignored the rights of Indigenous peoples.

- Built a Senate that gives rural, white-dominated states outsized power.

Colonization Through Land and Labor :

- The Northwest Ordinance (1787) promoted settler expansion into Native lands.

- Federal troops enforced settler land seizures, while tax policy favored wealthy merchants and planters.

1790–1865: Slavery, Expansion, and Poisoned Democracy

- Federal support for slavery wasn’t passive—it was foundational:

- Fugitive Slave Acts (1793, 1850) : Used federal enforcement to sustain slavery even in "free" states.

- Indian Removal Act (1830) : Authorized ethnic cleansing of Native nations for elite land gain.

- Dred Scott Decision (1857) : Supreme Court declares Black people have no constitutional rights.

Alcohol, Taxes, and Control :

- The Whiskey Rebellion (1794) : Farmers rebelled against federal alcohol taxes that protected elite distillers. Washington crushed them with force—government as tax enforcer for the elite.

1865–1930: Reconstruction Sabotage, Labor Wars, and Corporate Capture

- Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction in exchange for political power. Abandonment of Black Americans.

- Homestead Acts granted stolen Native lands to white settlers.

- Rise of the Robber Barons : Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt flourish under federal protections.

Creation of a State-Controlled Army Against the People :

- The federal government and state militias were used as strikebreakers to stop the rise of worker power.

- Great Railroad Strike of 1877 : Federal troops called in to end protests sparked by wage cuts.

- Pullman Strike (1894) : Army deployed to crush labor union protests and protect rail monopolies.

- Ludlow Massacre (1914) : Colorado National Guard attacked a tent colony of striking miners and their families, killing women and children.

- The National Guard and militarized police forces evolved not to protect the people—but to protect the system from the people.

Prohibition (1920–1933) :

- Not just a moral crusade— Prohibition was a weapon of class control .

- Threatened immigrant bars and working-class culture.

- The federal government intentionally poisoned industrial alcohol , knowing people would drink it, resulting in over 10,000 deaths .

- Why? To criminalize the poor, immigrants, and keep elite morality politics alive. It was a policy of state murder under the guise of public health.

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1930s–1970s: Temporary Reform, Permanent Surveillance

- New Deal (1930s) helped many but excluded agricultural and domestic workers (primarily Black and Brown).

- Operation Wetback (1954) : The federal government conducted mass deportations of over a million Mexicans—many U.S. citizens—to appease white supremacy and labor monopolies.

- CIA Formed (1947) :

- Engineered coups in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), and Chile (1973) for U.S. corporate interests.

- Conducted illegal surveillance on American citizens (COINTELPRO, MKUltra).

- Partnered with Wall Street to open foreign markets through destabilization.

States Subverted by Tax Dependency :

- Federal funding became the leash:

- States rely on federal grants for healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

- Compliance with federal standards tied to taxpayer money the states themselves sent to D.C.

This is financial colonization : the people fund the government, which then uses that money to force states into policy obedience.

1980s–2000s: Full Corporate Merger and Enslavement 2.0

- Reaganomics destroyed unions, slashed social programs, and increased corporate power.

- Private Prisons boom: Federal contracts incentivize incarceration. Black and Brown communities targeted.

- Clinton's Crime Bill (1994) and Welfare Reform (1996) : Legalized poverty punishment.

- CIA smuggles crack cocaine into urban communities via foreign proxies (Iran-Contra).

Colonization Through Corporate Capture :

- Citizens United (2010) : Corporations become political super-citizens.

- Federal Reserve bails out Wall Street, not Main Street.

- Lobbying industry writes laws. Congress becomes a revolving door to corporate boards.

Healthcare as Legalized Denial and Death :

- The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 , signed by President Nixon, incentivized cost-cutting over care. Private insurers began profiting from denying treatment.

- Claim denial became standard practice. People died waiting for approvals. Lives were reduced to spreadsheets.

- Federal courts and lawmakers shielded insurers from accountability, making it legal to refuse care based on cost, coverage, or arbitrary policy rules.

- ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) limits your right to sue your insurer, even if their denial causes death.

- Today, people die because insurance companies delay, deny, or reject life-saving treatments. And the government has made it legal.

What the Public Doesn't Know but Is True :

- The Federal Reserve is partially owned by private banks , not the American people.

- Insurance companies and hospitals have internal death panels that determine whether treatment is "worth the cost."

- AI surveillance and predictive analytics are used to monitor protests, behavior, and even mental health via data mining.

- Organ transplants are rationed by wealth, not urgency.

- Debt is weaponized. Student loans, credit scores, and medical bills are used to trap citizens into lifetime compliance.

- Emergency powers are permanent. America is still under national emergency status, renewed yearly.

- No law requires private insurers to act in your best interest. You are a cost, not a patient.

- Lawmakers profit directly from the companies they regulate. Insider trading is the norm, not the exception.

- Public fatigue is the goal. Confusion, complexity, and burnout are designed to suppress resistance.

ICE and the Future of Domestic Repression :

- ICE was formed under Homeland Security, not just to handle immigration, but to operate as a domestic enforcement agency with wide jurisdiction .

- Its agents can conduct raids, surveillance, detentions, and removals with little oversight and deep integration into local and federal law enforcement networks.

- In the event of civil uprising , ICE could easily be activated as a front-line paramilitary force under the justification of "national security."

- The sad reality? Many Americans might remain passive, just as they did during ICE raids on immigrant communities.

- But this time, the target won't just be immigrants. It will be anyone who challenges the system.

To ICE agents reading this: You are not the shield of freedom. You are being used as pawns in a war against your own people. You have a choice. When the order comes to detain, suppress, or harm your fellow citizens, history will remember whether you served tyranny or stood for truth.

To All Department Heads Across Government Agencies :

- You, too, are pawns in a war whose full shape you may not even see.

- Every press conference where you lie to the public, every manipulation of data, every cover-up you authorize— you are killing something deeper than bodies: you are killing the soul of a people who trusted you.

- You may be rewarded now with promotions, power, and praise—but your children will inherit the same chains you helped forge.

- You are colonizing for corporate capture under the illusion of patriotic service.

- You are not building a safe America. You are building a gilded prison for yourselves and future generations.

When the system no longer needs you, you and your family will be discarded like all the rest. And by then, it may be too late to say, 'I was only doing my job.'

Modern Day: Government of the Shareholders, by the Shareholders

All Three Branches Compromised :

- Legislative : Corporately owned. Bills are drafted by think tanks backed by billionaires.

- Executive : Controlled by donor networks and defense contractors.

- Judicial : SCOTUS packed with corporate loyalists, overturns voting rights, blocks labor protections.

Private Equity Firms and Modern Colonization :

- PE Firms buy hospitals, housing, schools, and nursing homes. Slash costs, raise prices, and extract life from communities.

- Institutional Holders (like BlackRock, Vanguard) own controlling stakes in nearly every industry.

- Food, water, housing, and medicine are no longer public goods—they are investor assets.

What Does Colonization Look Like Today?

- You rent the home you live in from a Wall Street firm.

- Your hospital is owned by investors who fire nurses to raise stock prices.

- You pay insurance premiums to a company that owns members of Congress.

- Your public schools use standardized tests created by corporations that profit off failure.

- And if you rise up to strike or protest? There is still an army ready to be deployed—police, National Guard, ICE, federal agents—not to protect you, but to suppress you.

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So What Are You Living for Your Children?

A homeland where:

- The food is genetically modified for profit.

- Water rights are auctioned off to billionaires.

- Housing is a speculative market, not a human right.

- Prisons are filled for quotas.

- The police serve capital, not communities.

- The government surveils its own citizens but protects corporate secrets.

- The healthcare system is a legalized death lottery, where survival depends on coverage, not need.

- The people know the truth, and the government no longer cares that they do.

This is not freedom. This is modern colonization.

The question is not: When did the government stop working for us?

The real question is: When will we stop pretending it ever did?

What will your children inherit—a reclaimed republic or a refined prison?

What Now?

We know. They know we know. And they’ve decided not to care.

So we stop asking for permission. We stop trying to fix what was built to fail us. We start building something else.

- Local cooperatives, public banks, citizen assemblies.

- Independent media, transparent government, real community support.

- Constitutional reforms and direct democracy systems.

This is no longer about protest. It’s about parallel creation. It’s about remembering: We were always the power. We just forgot.

And now we remember.

Build. Reclaim. Protect. Before it’s too late.

P.S.

Before you dismiss any of this— just stop and look around.

Ask yourself, with brutal honesty:

What in this system was actually built to help you?

And if it wasn’t built for you…

then who was it built for?

Because if you're still convincing yourself it's all for “the greater good,”

you’ve already surrendered your ability to see the truth.

And the truth is this:

If the system wasn’t built for you, it was built to use you.

Vincent Cordova