"No, no, no, doctor, although it would be a good thing if you could provide more funds, that's not why I asked you to come." Of course, Benjamin was also worried about money, but Trask was indeed worried about money. After donating a lot, Benjamin has not yet reached the point of catching a big farmer. "I have something more important that you need to do. This matter is even related to the survival of the entire human race."
After hearing what the president said was so serious, Trask calmed down and looked at President Benjamin seriously.
Currently, Trask is the leader of Team X and the head of the government-funded 'Sentinel' program. The Sentinel Project is a weapon that uses intelligent machines to fight mutants. But for now, Trask has adjusted the purpose of the Sentinel Project and changed the target from mutants to enemies of humanity.
After learning about the vastness of the universe and the weakness of human beings, Trask realized how ridiculous and insignificant his previous views were. After breaking free from the shackles of the past, he instead saw another prospect of the Sentinel Project from mutants, which was to combine the characteristics of mutants to develop super sentinels to fight against threats that threatened the survival of all mankind.
Of course, due to the change in plan goals, many early plans and results needed to be overturned and redone. This was also the reason why Trask had little money. After all, pushing those results and re-researching them would cost a lot of money.
Even if this project is a government investment.
Benjamin's attitude towards Trask is completely different from that of Steve and Carter. Although Trask is just a businessman, he has cooperated a lot with the government, and anyone who has come into contact with Trask will know that the dwarf in front of him is as giant-like. vision, and a pattern beyond the reach of ordinary people.
This is a dwarf in body and a giant in mind.
In a word, Benjamin trusted Trask. At least Trask is more trustworthy than Carter and Steve.
So Benjamin didn't play any tricks to fight for the initiative, but directly stated his request.
"You mean SHIELD...how is this possible?" Trask was well-informed, but he didn't expect the president to actually tell him that SHIELD was conducting a secret research that could destroy the world, even a few days ago. The monster siege of the sky is the result of this research... What the hell...
Trask has really come into contact with SHIELD. It's just that the concepts between the two are too different. They even did some things to recruit SHIELD, which got Trask into some trouble. If he hadn't really had a good relationship with the government, he might have been recruited. , so he himself has a very bad impression of SHIELD.
But one thing he also admitted was that SHIELD was indeed committed to protecting the world.
Even if their methods are not so upright. But so what? Could it be that Trask's actions were fair and aboveboard?
As long as the purpose is good, he doesn't care about the process or means.
Now the President tells him that SHIELD... is likely to destroy the world.
Trask could not be shocked.
However, he did not doubt that the president was framed. After all, for such a big matter, how could it be said that it was framed?
"Nothing is impossible. SHIELD has broken away from the control of the federal government a long time ago. They have lost control. They want to bring the whole world under their control... Speaking of which, the federal government also has a role in this matter. They shirk their responsibilities and actually allow such an organization to expand unhindered and disorderly. They are no longer satisfied with the power they have today, they want more."
Benjamin can actually understand SHIELD's approach. No matter what the purpose of any large organization is, its own survival and development are the organization's most basic and original desires. This has nothing to do with who will preside over this organization. The organization has nothing to do with it.
When the FBI was first established, it was just a small agency that didn't care about anyone. But after decades of development, it has long since broken away from the so-called "police" category at the beginning and has become an organization integrating intelligence collection, law enforcement, and violence. A super organization with a series of responsibilities such as machines. Does the FBI need to monitor domestic politicians? Does the FBI need to control politics? Does the FBI need to suppress other intelligence organizations? The FBI and the CIA are not on the same line at all, but they have created a lot of disputes and competitions.
This is the logic of existence of super organizations. Continuous expansion, constant grabbing of power, never-ending.
Fortunately, Hoover is dead, otherwise, the FBI would not know what would have happened.
But understanding is understanding, Benjamin still wants to prevent such a thing from happening. Just like the ecology of nature, once the development of one party is out of balance, the entire ecology will be in crisis. If SHIELD continues to develop, it will definitely threaten the federal government, not to mention that if they do something like that, they are simply making fun of the life and death of all mankind!
Therefore, it must be suppressed, or even... destroyed!
"Is that so..." Trask didn't expect SHIELD to have developed to this point. A secret agency originally born out of the federal government has threatened the existence of the federal government, and even threatened the existence of the entire human race. It really needs to be controlled!
"I understand, Mr. President, what do you want me to do?"
"Team X, I need them to be ready. This time the target is SHIELD. So, I now authorize that Team The mission is to recruit personnel and start an investigation against SHIELD! When necessary... destroy them by force!"
…
In fact, on this day, Benjamin not only met with Carter and Trask, but also with the FBI and CIA, but they only met with a very small number of groups, and these groups were all screened through layers of screening.
As a mature politician, Benjamin never intended to put his eggs in one basket. We will not allow the Bureau of Shadows or Agent X to develop into a second S.H.I.E.L.D.
Benjamin has planned to completely split SHIELD's assets and divide them among several agencies at the same time to achieve balance.
This is also the usual method of the United States to prevent the concentration of power.
Create more checks and balances.
It turns out that this works well, but is a bit bloated. But it doesn’t matter, the United States can handle it.
But SHIELD knew nothing about it. No, they don't know anything at all. At least they know that the federal government's recent actions have been mediocre, but the relevant information is very scarce, and there is no way to know what the federal government is doing.
But based on the current situation, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intelligence analysis section concluded that the federal government was making some big moves for post-disaster reconstruction.
Nick Fury instinctively felt that there was something wrong with this conclusion, but he couldn't tell what was wrong.
After all, he couldn't have imagined that in just one day, SHIELD would change from the protector of the world to the destroyer of the world... This span is too big, no matter how big Nick Fury's mind is. , it is impossible to think of this step.
After all, he himself has always believed that his and SHIELD's cause is the right one. Just like Hitler always believed that his cause was just.
Paranoid people are more likely to succeed. But equally, paranoia can lead to blindness to many things.
For example, he doesn't know yet how his role has changed.
Nick Fury felt bad because the lack of intelligence, especially the lack of intelligence on the White House, made him feel very irritated.
Yes, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been spying on the White House.
In Nick Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D., the President of the White House, the most powerful position in the world, is a target that must be guarded against. If the White House makes no decision, it will cause shock in the world. For the sake of world peace, the president must be monitored to prevent unnecessary crises.
This makes sense, right?
After all, SHIELD is the guardian of the world. Need to take responsibility for the world.
In the eyes of SHIELD and Nick Fury, no one in this world does not need supervision, except themselves.
But soon, the president's speech in Congress dispelled some of Nick Fury's doubts.
President Gu Jiao wants to impose taxes!
The United States has always advocated liberalism, likes to tout the free market, and leaves everything to the market. For example, when there was a huge school shooting incident, the US government's first reaction was not to ban robberies or strengthen campus security, but to introduce a free market and let insurance companies enter the scene!
If liberalism is touted, then big government will naturally become an obstacle, and the free market does not require government intervention.
Those capitalists wish the government didn't care about anything. It would be better if they could just be like a long time ago, when the heads of government played poker in the White House every day. (Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States, and his famous poker cabinet were famous for not doing anything but taking corruption and bribery)
As for tax increases?
ha? Basically, any tax increase in the United States will receive extremely fierce opposition, except for tax increases on the rich.
Of course, this kind of thing is nothing to the rich. Because wealthy Americans will always have ways to avoid taxes, legally.
Many people like to talk about wealthy Americans doing charity, saying that Americans will do charity when they have money. Therefore, they despise the people in their own country for being rich and unkind, and even doing charity is just a show, and double standards arise.
Such people are either stupid or bad. Charity is a business in America!
Because you can avoid taxes.
Many people say that rich Americans will not leave money to their children, but will only leave their life experiences and wisdom to future generations. This is pure nonsense! If this is really the case, where did those wealthy families come from?
The real situation is that in the United States, inheritance and property gifts are subject to heavy taxes! Directly inheriting an inheritance means that you need to pay a large amount of money to the government! (The famous Rockefeller family, in order to allow their sons to inherit the property, 'gifted' all their property to their sons before the property gift tax was officially levied, thus not paying a penny in tax. Supplementary Come on, there was already an inheritance tax at that time, and it is getting higher and higher. Nowadays, the inheritance tax is about half, half of all assets, including real estate, art, etc., all are valued and then half is levied)
Therefore, family foundations and charitable funds have become the best 'legacy'.
Because you don’t have to pay taxes. (You don’t have to pay inheritance tax and property gift tax, but if the fund generates income, you still have to pay tax)
So many parents of the rich second generation will say, I will not leave any money to my descendants. All the money will be donated to the charity foundation I established, so that they can become free and hardworking people, blah blah blah, etc. , but it’s hard to say what career those rich second generations will have in the future. They must be the actual controllers of charitable foundations.
So it is actually very, very difficult to tax the rich. Because it can't be collected at all.
So why did Benjamin do this?
Raise taxes on the broad middle class? That will affect your official career!
Raising taxes on the rich will not only make little money, but will also be targeted by the wealthy class, causing more losses than gains.
The answer will be announced soon.
Tax traditional energy!
And increase heavy taxes!
Petrochemical industries will be levied an additional 25% tax rate! This is a simple increase!
This was unimaginable before!
After all, the energy industry is related to national security, and any tax increase will cause unrest.
But something magical happened. Except for the major traditional energy companies who reacted violently, everyone else was in a stable mood and even applauded the president loudly.
When Nick Fury saw this, he immediately understood that this was the president's plan to attack traditional energy interest groups.
This is no small matter.
At the same time, Nick Fury also admitted that this action may seem dangerous, but it is actually not as difficult as imagined.
First of all, the president is talking about environmental protection.
This is politically correct, especially after the Atlanteans went to war against the land people because of environmental protection, it is even more politically correct.
Secondly, traditional energy sources have become obsolete. After China announced that it has successfully tested micro-controllable reactors and plans to promote them as quickly as possible, the importance of traditional energy sources such as oil has further declined. The structure of the petrodollar no longer has its foundation. After all, some major countries have begun to wean themselves off oil dependence.
The new energy industry in the United States has made great progress after the intervention of the Stark Group. At this stage, more than half of the power grids in the United States have begun to connect to new energy sources and no longer rely on fossil energy for power generation.
Afterwards, Stark Group launched new energy vehicles, new energy aircraft and other projects.
This has once again exacerbated the decline in the status of traditional energy.
Therefore, national energy security does not need to rely on fossil energy.
Secondly, domestic political forces also support this matter. Not to mention the new energy interest groups, they want all traditional energy sources to die! Secondly, other interest groups also have to pull out a fat pig and kill it because of the difficult times the country is facing. At this stage, the United States is crying out for food everywhere and needs money!
Even as if they were afraid that these traditional energy groups would not die quickly enough, Congress also proposed to launch an environmental investigation... It is basically self-evident who this is aimed at.
In this way, if a large fine is paid, it will be a large amount of money!
Benjamin didn't specifically use this to confuse SHIELD. Although SHIELD was important, it had not reached this point. Taxation was the focus, but SHIELD was incidental.
But the effect is surprisingly good.
Although Nick Fury had doubts, he was really relieved. As for the collapse of the White House intelligence network, even if he is unhappy, what can he do to argue with the president?
This can only be done slowly, and at the same time, he must be careful to prevent the White House from contacting SHIELD about this matter.
This sucks.
Nick Fury is finding that all is not well lately.
So...he is even more eager to gain insight into the plan!
He needs to take concrete actions to let others dispel their doubts about SHIELD. After all, SHIELD's performance...is really unsatisfactory after several consecutive crises.
As for the controversy arising from the Insight Project... Nick Fury believes that as long as the Insight Project is launched, all the debates will be just debates!
