Broke, Woke & Trending Folk 7/29: Trump’s crypto promise, Kamala anointed climate change champion, gas prices drop, Venezuela election fraud, dragonfly apocalypse, and much more

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Here is a collection of stories happening across the country, displaying the state of the economy, the heartbeat of American culture, and the craziness of modern-day politics…

1) America ‘Will Be The Crypto Capital Of The Planet’: Trump Fires Up Massive Crowd At Bitcoin Conference

From Daily Wire: Former President Donald Trump spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville on Saturday and promised to make the U.S. the cryptocurrency superpower of the world.

Crowds of people lined the streets of Tennessee’s capital to greet the president’s motorcade while more people waited in line inside the Music City Center to listen to the former president’s speech.

“This afternoon, I’m laying out my plans to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet,” he said, adding that “Bitcoin stands for freedom, sovereignty, and independence from government.”

Trump also blasted Democrats’ unfair “targeting” of cryptocurrency and promised to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler “on day one.” Gensler has been critical of Bitcoin, saying the cryptocurrency is “rife with fraud” and has pushed to police cryptocurrency more heavily. Trump further promised to appoint a Bitcoin and crypto advisory council on the first day of his new term.

 

2) Al Gore endorses Harris: ‘That’s the kind of climate champion we need in the White House’

From The Hill: Former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday endorsed Vice President Harris for president, joining a chorus of Democrats supporting her bid to replace President Biden as the party’s likely nominee.

Gore, a prominent environmental activist, cited Harris’s past support for action addressing climate change in making his endorsement.

 

3) Florida gas prices fluctuate, rising then falling within a week

From CBS 12 News: Gas prices in Florida have been fluctuating, with the state average rising three cents. The Automotive Auto Group (AAA) stated that the average face price per gallon rose by eleven cents early the previous week, hitting $3.55 before dropping to $3.40 by Sunday.

“Gas prices could move even lower, after a big drop in oil prices last week,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA – The Auto Club Group.

In early July, the price for U.S. crude oil was around $83 per barrel and has since dropped by 8% over the past three weeks, with the most significant decline occurring last week, AAA reported. The report stated that oil prices fell by nearly $3 per barrel, reaching $77.16/b on Friday, the lowest level since early June when the average gas price in Florida was about $3.30 per gallon.

 

4) Paris Olympics broadcaster removed from coverage over remark about Australian women’s swim team

From Fox News: A European Olympics broadcaster’s comment about the Australian women’s swimming team on Saturday cost him his spot in Paris.

Bob Ballard, who was covering the Paris Summer Games for Eurosport, talked about what “women are like” in reference to the Australian team after they won the 4×100-meter freestyle.

“Well, the women are just finishing up. You know what women are like … hanging around, doing their makeup,” Ballard said, per the New York Post.

Lizzie Simmons, Ballard’s partner on the commentary team, called his remark “outrageous,” according to Deadline. Eurosport removed Ballard from their Olympics coverage afterward.

“During a segment of Eurosport’s coverage last night, commentator Bob Ballard made an inappropriate comment,” the company said in a statement, per The Independent. “To that end, he has been removed from our commentary roster with immediate effect.”

 

5) Some teammates left Olympic Village for hotels after video shows cramped conditions

From Fox News: American tennis star Coco Gauff revealed a dire bathroom situation while she and her teammates were at the Olympic Village in Paris at the start of the Summer Games on Saturday.

Gauff posted a TikTok video showing the cramped situation with her teammates.

“10 girls, two bathrooms,” she screen-capped the video, which showed several women doing their hair and makeup and trying to get ready in several rooms. Gauff wrote in a separate comment, “all the tennis girls moved to a hotel except me. so now just 5 girls two bathrooms.”

The tennis star said she borrowed a mattress topper from the archery team to help her sleep on the cardboard beds.

The Olympic Village has been a hot topic ahead of the Paris Olympics. The apparently cramped conditions were one thing, but the no air conditioning rule sparked another problem. Paris 2024 organizers didn’t put air conditioning units inside rooms in the village. A cooling system was put together, using naturally cold water from 70 meters deep that will be circulated in the flooring of the buildings to reduce the temperature in the apartments.

 

6) CNN: More Americans Armed for Self-Defense Than Ever Before

From Breitbart: A CNN report drawn from a recent survey of gun owners shows that more Americans are armed for self-defense than ever before.

CNN noted that the survey, published Thursday, centered on 2,477 “American adults who reported owning guns between May and June 2023.”

The report cited data from Injury Prevention journal, which revealed the percentage of gun owners that cited “personal protection” as the reason for getting a gun jumped from 26 percent in 1999 to 79 percent in 2024.

 

7) Blood tests may have an edge spotting Alzheimer’s

From Axios: There’s growing evidence that blood tests can accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and pave the way for earlier treatment of more patients.

Why it matters: Making Alzheimer’s easier to detect is seen as crucial now that new drugs that slow the disease’s progression are coming onto the market. A blood test has advantages over pricey PET scans or more invasive spinal taps that are now used to diagnose the dreaded neurological condition and could be incorporated into routine physician office visits.

Driving the news: A study featured at an international Alzheimer’s conference this week in Philadelphia showed that blood tests allow primary care doctors to accurately detect the characteristics of Alzheimer’s. There are at least 16 blood tests in development, though none has won FDA approval yet.

 

8) President Nicolas Maduro wins election despite exit polls suggesting the opposite

From Collin Rugg via X/Twitter: Venezuelan National Electoral Council says President Nicolas Maduro has won the election despite exit polls suggesting the opposite. The council claimed Maduro won with 51.20% of the vote. Argentina president Javier Milei announced that Argentina would not be recognizing Maduro’s “win.”

“Venezuelans chose to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro. The data announce a crushing victory for the opposition and the world is waiting for it to recognize defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence and de*th,” he said. “Argentina is not going to recognize another fraud, and hopes that the Armed Forces this time will defend democracy and the popular will.”

The Maduro “win” comes after armed gangs were seen stealing boxes with ballots throughout the country.

 

9) California wildfire explodes, becomes largest in US

From Reuters: Thousands of firefighters were battling a rapidly growing wildfire in northern California on Saturday after the blaze more than doubled in size in a 24-hour span.

The Park Fire had burned more than 350,000 acres (141,640 hectares) about 90 miles (144 km) north of the state capital city of Sacramento as of Saturday evening, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

 

10) Supersized swarm of dragonflies overwhelms Rhode Island beach in creepy clip

From New York Post: Freaky footage captured a swarm of dragonflies turning a Rhode Island beach into a scene akin to a Biblical plague over the weekend.

The seemingly endless swarm of dragonflies descended on Misquamicut Beach in Westerly on Saturday, when a cloud of the insects started buzzing across the beach, under umbrellas and chairs, past faces and between legs.

“I was enjoying a nice day at Misquamicut State Beach until we endured a dragonfly apocalypse,” witness Stephanie Martin told WCVB.

 

11. Jennifer Aniston slams JD Vance’s ‘childless cat ladies’ comment

From Fox 32: Jennifer Aniston is calling out JD Vance over past comments he made criticizing women without children.

In a resurfaced clip from a 2021 appearance on Tucker Carlson’s former Fox News show, Vance, who was then a candidate for the Ohio Senate, told Carlson that the U.S. was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

“It’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?” Vance added.

The “Friends” star shared a screenshot of the Republican VP nominee’s viral comments on her Instagram stories, writing, “I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States.”

 

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