All right, Alexander, let's talk about the Munich Security Conference, which has wrapped

up.

And we had the big speech from Marco Rubio.

What did you think about his speech to the audience of Munich who gave him a standing

ovation, even though it appeared as if Rubio was telling them that they're not doing a very good job in managing the empire.

So he was scolding them a bit, or maybe it was a type of pep talk as well.

They need to do better to manage empire.

But anyway, it was about empire. The speech was about empire. So your thoughts. Well, I think probably the reason they gave him a standing

ovation is because he wasn't J.D. Vance and he wasn't being quite as rude about them as other

officials within the administration had been.

And of course, he did offer them some scraps, and I think they were grateful for that altogether.

But I wonder whether they actually completely understood the speech he was giving.

And sometimes I actually wonder whether Rubio was,

because you talked about empire. This was the most nakedly imperialistic speech that an American

secretary of state has given since I think the foundation of the Republic in the 1780s.

Perhaps there was an exception, which is the Theodore Roosevelt period before the First World War and all of that.

But I mean, this is absolute naked imperialism.

It was, you know, that the West has been in decline, but that it was now reverse its decline, that the way to do this is basically for everybody to get behind

the United States, that the United States is going to be utterly aggressive from this point

forward, that we can forget all about liberalism, globalism, all those nice fancy words.

They've served their purpose.

They don't really mean anything anymore.

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