President Donald Trump’s order to withdraw from Syria has been greeted, predictably, with an avalanche of condemnation culminating in last Thursday’s resignation by Defense Secretary James Mattis. The Mattis resignation letter focused on the betrayal of allies, though it was inevitably light on details, suggesting that the Marine Corps General was having some difficulty in discerning that American interests might be somewhat different than those of feckless and faux allies like Israel and Saudi Arabia that are adept at manipulating the levers of power in Washington and in the media. Mattis clearly appreciates that having allies is a force multiplier in wartime but fails to understand that it is a liability otherwise as the allies create an obligation to go to war on their behalf rather than in response to any actual national interest.

"There's millions of commies in the freedom fight

"Yelling for Lenin and civil rights

"How do I know? I read it in the *Daily News*"

—Tom Paxton

A grim “Red Line” has been crossed. But not the one Donald wants.

He’s unexpectedly talking about troop withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan, offering a welcome glimmer for peace.

But he’s also taken a Great Leap into the TrumpExit abyss.

Donald meant his “Red Line” to warn Robert Mueller away from his decades of bankruptcy, theft, and ruble-laundering.

All that’s crumbling. Mueller’s “report” so far has been a devastating onslaught of indictments and convictions.

If the new Democratic House majority pursues Trump’s tax returns and laundered mob money, calls for impeachment will become a deafening roar.

But there’s much more. Trump’s insane decision to shut the government has shaken even many Republicans. That hate-crazed banshees like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter could scream down the White House is a reality too terrifying even for many at Fox “News.” Visuals of young innocents being tortured and murdered have moved the madness even deeper.

Shot in glorious black and white, Cold War’s helmer Pawel Pawlikowski’s won the 2018 Cannes Film Festival’s Best Director award and the film was nominated for Cannes’ prestigious Palme d’Or. Cold War won six European Film Awards and as of this writing has won a total of 20 prizes and been nominated for another 32. In 2015 Pawlikowski’s Ida was nommed for a cinematography Oscar and earned the Best Foreign Language Academy Award (Ida was Golden Globe-nominated in the same category). Cold War is currently Poland’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar (although it was completely overlooked by the Golden Globes).

If two hours and 23 minutes of nearly nonstop noisy action, violence, CGI and other eye-popping special effects in a superhero movie is your thing, then you will love the mind-boggling Aquaman. It’s put-your-brain-into-neutral for some mindless entertainment mostly beneath the waves at the Lost Continent of Atlantis, DC Comics and Warner Bros. style.

On the other hand, if you prefer character studies, well-written dialogue, originality and good stories, go see another film, such as If Beale Street Could Talk or Vice. At least seven screenwriters share credits (or the blame) for this overblown oceanic epic that is extremely derivative - and not only of a superhero franchise dating back to Aquaman’s 1941 debut during the Golden Age of comics. Indeed, the screen scribbling kleptomaniacs seem to have plagiarized Greek and Roman mythology as far back as Homer’s The Odyssey, as well as Plato, who wrote about Atlantis in Socratic dialogues.