It's NICOLE SANDLER, back in to guest host today's BradCast. We begin with an update of the latest news.

My guest is journalist ASAWIN SUEBSAENG of the Daily Beast, whose first book, Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump's Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington is newly released and full of the kind of stories you'd expect from Donald Trump's White House.

Today is February 14. Yes, it's Valentines Day, but it's a sad day where I live. Two years ago today, a former student entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida --- about 10 minutes from my home --- with an AK47, killing 17 people and seriously injuring another 17. And nothing has changed since.

And thirty years ago today, as the Voyager-1 was passing Neptune heading out of the solar system, it took the first picture of Earth from outer space. Carl Sagan wrote about it famous "Pale Blue Dot." Neil deGrasse Tyson read it, so we share it today to try to end the week on a positive note...

Download MP3 or listen online below...

And because laughter is good for the soul and especially needed these days, I shared a wonderful parody sent to me by a listener. The song played on the show today was good enough, but the video is even better. So enjoy!

On today's BradCast: We have a lot to catch up from over the weekend, and callers with lots of opinions to go with it. [Audio link to show follows below.]

But, first up today, both a Republican federal court panel and the U.S. Supreme Court both rejected Pennsylvania Republican lawmaker's last ditch attempt to block a new U.S. House map forced upon them by the state Supreme Court in February after the previous map enacted in 2011 was determined to be an unlawful partisan gerrymander in violation of the state's Constitution. Those were the last chances for the state GOP to restore the unlawful maps --- which had given them a 13 to 5 advantage in U.S. House seats over the past three elections --- before the candidate filing deadline for the 2018 primary elections in the largely 50/50 swing-state.

At the same time, voters head to the polls in Illinois on Tuesday for the second primary of the crucial 2018 mid-terms. Among the contested races is a primary challenge by progressive Marie Newman to longtime, very right-wing Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski in IL's 3rd Congressional district. The race is said to be statistically tied, as Lipinski fights for his political life, and as the winner of Tuesday's primary in the very "blue" area of Chicago will likely go on to win in November, since the GOP, literally, has only a proud neo-Nazi running on the ballot for the Republican nomination.

But concerns about Illinois' computerized voting, tabulation and registration system continue to haunt officials and undermine democracy and voter confidence --- justifiably. The state's voter registration system was breached during the 2016 election, and remains wildly vulnerable along with the state's voting and tabulation systems. Despite purported concerns of "Russian interference", little has changed in any of our nation's easily hacked, oft-failed electoral systems following the 2016 election.

Then: On last Friday's show, we noted that nobody in the Trump Admin had yet been fired that day. But, shortly after airtime, FBI Deputy Director and former Acting Director Andrew McCabe was fired just two days shy of receiving his lifetime pension after 21 years of service to the Bureau.

We discuss the reasons he was said to have been fired and the fact that Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who officially fired him) was supposed to have recused himself from the matter. Nonetheless, Donald Trump rejoiced at the news via Twitter --- since McCabe is a witness against Trump's apparent attempted obstruction of justice in the firing of FBI Director James Comey --- before turning his wrath back against Comey and, for the first time on Twitter, Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Is a newly emboldened Trump preparing again to fire Mueller? If he does, will Congressional Republicans do anything to block him? And what, for that matter, will the American people do --- if anything --- in response to what many (over-confidently) believe would be a Constitutional crisis? We open the phone lines to talk about all of that and much more on today's BradCast!...

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