Navigation through the world and through the mind may involve the same neural pathways

Navigation through the world and through the mind may involve the same neural pathways

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Steven Novella writes: Have you ever been in a semi-familiar location but couldn’t quite place where you were, then suddenly the landmarks line up and you know where you are? This might happen when entering a familiar location from an unusual direction, for example. Also (a seemingly unrelated question), when you visualize abstract ideas, do you arrange them physically. For example, do you visualize time (like days, weeks, months, years), and if so is there a particular physical relationship by…

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Trump played central role in cover-up of his affairs with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

Trump played central role in cover-up of his affairs with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

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The Wall Street Journal reports: As a presidential candidate in August 2015, Donald Trump huddled with a longtime friend, media executive David Pecker, in his cluttered 26th floor Trump Tower office and made a request. What can you do to help my campaign? he asked, according to people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., offered to use his National Enquirer tabloid to buy the silence of women if they tried to publicize alleged sexual…

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After calling acting AG a ‘great guy,’ Trump now says ‘I don’t know him’

After calling acting AG a ‘great guy,’ Trump now says ‘I don’t know him’

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The Associated Press reports: Matthew Whitaker’s future at the helm of the Justice Department appeared uncertain at best Friday as President Donald Trump denied even knowing the man he had named acting attorney general just two days earlier. The Senate’s top Republican predicted a permanent replacement could be named soon for Whitaker, who is now overseeing the Trump-Russia probe. In addition to the negative comments from Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Whitaker’s past business ties and comments on…

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It’s probably too late to stop Mueller

It’s probably too late to stop Mueller

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Benjamin Wittes writes: Here are 10 reasons to think that [acting attorney general, Matthew] Whitaker may have less capacity to foil Mueller than the current moment—and his formal powers—may suggest. First, Mueller has spread the wealth around. The normal critique of special-counsel investigations is that they hoard jurisdiction, endlessly expand, and become personal roving inquests into their political subjects’ lives. The opposite is the case with Mueller. He has not merely referred to other Justice Department components matters at the…

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Jeff Sessions is out, but his dark vision for immigration policy lives on

Jeff Sessions is out, but his dark vision for immigration policy lives on

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Jonathan Blitzer writes: For more than two decades, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s hostility to immigrants put him on the outer fringes of the Republican Party. When Congress seemed likely to pass comprehensive immigration reform—first in 2007, then in 2013—Sessions worked assiduously to scuttle it. In 2015, after the Republicans took control of the Senate, he circulated a memo titled “Immigration Handbook for a New Republican Majority,” in which he argued that the G.O.P. had lost the Presidency in 2012 partly…

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Trump put Obama family at risk, says Michelle

Trump put Obama family at risk, says Michelle

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Krissah Thompson writes: [Michelle Obama’s] memoir is not a Washington read full of gossip and political score-settling — though she does lay bare her deep, quaking disdain for Trump, who she believes put her family’s safety at risk with his vehement promotion of the false birther conspiracy theory. “The whole [birther] thing was crazy and mean-spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed. But it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks,” she…

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Trump administration to end refueling for Saudi coalition aircraft in Yemen

Trump administration to end refueling for Saudi coalition aircraft in Yemen

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The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration is ending the practice of refueling Saudi coalition aircraft, halting the most tangible and controversial aspect of U.S. support for the kingdom’s three-year war in Yemen, people familiar with the situation said. The move comes amid escalating criticism of Saudi Arabia’s conduct in the war. Lawmakers from both parties have demanded that the United States suspend weapons sales to Riyadh and cut off aerial refueling of aircraft flown by the Saudi coalition, which…

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Trump’s appointment of the acting attorney general is unconstitutional

Trump’s appointment of the acting attorney general is unconstitutional

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Neal K. Katyal and George T. Conway III write: What now seems an eternity ago, the conservative law professor Steven Calabresi published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in May arguing that Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. His article got a lot of attention, and it wasn’t long before President Trump picked up the argument, tweeting that “the Appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!” Professor Calabresi’s article was based on the Appointments Clause of…

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Matthew Whitaker, Mueller’s new boss, concluded last year there was ‘no collusion’ with Russia

Matthew Whitaker, Mueller’s new boss, concluded last year there was ‘no collusion’ with Russia

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The Daily Beast reports: A year-and-a-half before he took responsibility for overseeing the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, Matthew Whitaker, now the acting attorney general, had already reached a conclusion. “The truth is there was no collusion with the Russians and the Trump campaign,” he said in an interview on the Wilkow Majority show. “There was interference by the Russians into the election, but that was not collusion with the campaign. That’s where the left seems to…

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Acting attorney general opposes principal of constitutional checks and balances

Acting attorney general opposes principal of constitutional checks and balances

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The New York Times reports: The acting attorney general, Matthew G. Whitaker, once espoused the view that the courts “are supposed to be the inferior branch” and criticized the Supreme Court’s power to review legislative and executive acts and declare them unconstitutional, the lifeblood of its existence as a coequal branch of government. In a candidate Q. and A. when he sought the Republican nomination for senator in Iowa in 2014, Mr. Whitaker indicated that he shared the view among…

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Here’s the road map to the next decade of American politics

Here’s the road map to the next decade of American politics

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Doug Sosnik and Sara Fagen write: We are two former White House political directors—one of us, Doug Sosnik, worked for Bill Clinton; one of us, Sara Fagen, worked for George W. Bush. We’ve come together to give our assessment of the 2018 midterms—no partisan spin, just the facts. The following PowerPoint slides outline what we think about the results and what to expect in President Donald Trump’s Washington for the next two years. Here’s what we’ve learned so far: A…

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Words and walkouts aren’t enough. CNN should sue Trump over revoking Acosta’s press pass

Words and walkouts aren’t enough. CNN should sue Trump over revoking Acosta’s press pass

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Margaret Sullivan writes: CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta is a smart, tough reporter. He can also be a grandstander who seems to thrive on conflict with President Trump and doesn’t always know when to stop his aggressive questioning. But whether you like Acosta’s style, it’s clear the White House crossed a bright line Wednesday when it took away Acosta’s “hard pass,” which allows him the access he needs to cover the White House. That action amounts to punishing a…

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Now it’s up to the public

Now it’s up to the public

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Andrew Coan writes: The most surprising thing about Wednesday’s resignation of Jeff Sessions is that it did not happen sooner. President Trump has long been furious with his attorney general for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, and has had the power to fire him at any time. Trump’s decision to oust Sessions also removes Rod Rosenstein as acting attorney general for the purposes of the Russia investigation, leaving the fate of Special Counsel Robert Mueller uncertain. This drives home…

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Mueller has powerful new House allies as he bears down on Trump

Mueller has powerful new House allies as he bears down on Trump

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Politico reports: Special counsel Robert Mueller is set to emerge from his midterm campaign hibernation period with a powerful new ally as House Democrats surged back to the majority in Tuesday’s elections. The lead Russia investigator, who in the days and weeks ahead has a series of important court hearings and key sentencing deadlines for cooperating witnesses, will soon have a friendly audience of Democratic chairmen on one end of Capitol Hill who are primed with subpoena power to fight…

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