'BradCast 3/25/2022': (Guest: Amy Slipowitz of Freedom House on declining global democracy and rising autocracy)
b"On today's 'BradCast':\\xa0 Corrupt Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) says he will vote to confirm President Biden's nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, as the first black female Supreme Court Justice, but it's unclear if obstructionist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) agrees. Justice Clarence Thomas has been released from the hospital, but calls are growing for the corrupt Thomas to be impeached after revelations that his far-right activist wife Ginni sent bonkers text messages to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, urging him to overturn the 2020 election at the same time that Justice Thomas was ruling on cases seeking to overturn the 2020 election. Thomas was the sole justice to vote against releasing the very White House records that revealed his wife's involvement in attempts to steal the 2020 election. Because of this sort of corruption and more, the United States has fallen in the annual Freedom House report ranking freedom and liberty around the world. AMY SLIPOWITZ, Freedom House Research Manager and co-author of the 2022 annual report, 'The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule,' explains their findings showing a years-long decline in global democracy amid a rise in authoritarianism. Slipowitz discusses disturbing anti-democratic trends over the last two decades and the forces at work in the stunning decline in democracies as autocrats gain and consolidate power around the world. She also covers why the US has fallen so low, the January 6 Capitol Insurrection, new voter suppression laws, book bans, and more. Also today:\\xa0 the spike in gas prices triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine is increasing Americans' interest in electric vehicles, including at the US Postal Service."