Lions of Liberty Network

On this week's Mean Age Daydream, the leftist / feminist hypocrisy cabal is trying to cancel Shane Gillis for making fun of women's scrimpy clothing at gyms during an SNL monologue, plus a raging debate about EBT benefits and discounted entry to theme parks and zoos.

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Bretigne Shaffer writes children's horror, superhero graphic novels, and dark comedy about COVID — and she self-publishes all of it, because no traditional publisher (or Netflix) will touch a story that's critical of the pandemic response.

We talk about her Halloween story Elixir of Fear — a 19th-century patent-medicine salesman who's also a wizard, a "budgie flu," and a whole town swept up in a fear campaign — why great art about COVID hasn't arrived yet, the people now pretending lockdowns "weren't a big deal," and why she moved her family from California to Kentucky. Plus: the lost world of literary journals, short stories as Hollywood IP, B-movie horror vs. gore, The Exorcist, her upcoming short story collection and her novel Davy Sunshine and the Big Pandemic, the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry — and the burning question of whether female unicorns have horns.

Find Bretigne's books and Substack and follow Lou on all platforms below.

 Bretigne Shaffer

Website & Substack: https://www.bretigne.com

Books: Annabel Pickering & the Sky Pirates · Urban Yogini: A Superhero Who Can't Use Violence

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ

Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081

Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697

 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r

 Rock XX-XY Athletics. Get 20% off with promo code LOU20: https://www.xx-xyathletics.com/?sca_ref=7113152.ifIMaKpCG3ZfUHH4

 TheLouPerez.com |  [email protected]  Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

 Watch my sketch comedy streaming on Red Coral Universe: https://redcoraluniverse.com/title/the-lou-perez-comedy-68501a2fd369683d0f2a2a88?loopData=true&ccId=675bc891f78f658f73eaa46d

0:00 – Intro: Bretigne Shaffer braves a cold

0:58 – The stomach bug that took down Lou's whole family

2:16 – Elixir of Fear: a COVID fable in children's horror

3:35 – The "budgie flu" and how fear campaigns work

4:50 – John Bellairs and scary-but-not-too-scary stories

6:04 – Why write fan fiction you can't sell?

8:12 – Procrastination and the pain of writing

10:07 – Where's the great art about COVID?

12:26 – "It wasn't a big deal": the lockdown memory hole

15:07 – When COVID skeptics couldn't say a word

17:00 – Her first short story collection

17:10 – Mailing stories to literary journals

19:31 – Tin House, Fiction, and Mark Jay Mirsky

20:37 – Short stories as Hollywood IP

22:07 – Libertarian film studios and fleeing California for Kentucky

22:54 – Halloween, B-movie monsters, and Alligator (1980)

25:09 – Real horror vs. gore: The Exorcist

26:47 – Why she self-publishes

30:07 – Annabel Pickering and Urban Yogini

31:28 – Davy Sunshine and the Big Pandemic

32:53 – Writing for kids vs. adults

34:26 – The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry

36:20 – Do female unicorns have horns?

37:14 – Molière's The Imaginary Invalid

38:46 – Where to find Bretigne

#BretigneShaffer #COVID #SelfPublishing #Horror #FreeSpeech #Libertarian #LouPerezPodcast

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In this solo episode of Finding Freedom, the John breaks down what positive thinking really means—not vision boards and mirror affirmations, but the deliberate, disciplined practice of directing your mind toward what's possible rather than what you fear. Drawing on Carol Dweck's growth mindset research, Martin Seligman's work on learned optimism, and the neuroscience of the reticular activating system, he makes the case that positive thinking is a learnable skill backed by science, not a personality trait. He explains how the brain's built-in negativity bias—supercharged by modern media and social media—keeps most people tethered to anxiety and self-doubt, and why overriding that default requires consistent, intentional effort. Five practical steps are laid out: auditing your inputs, monitoring your self-talk (including the trick of naming your inner critic), practicing gratitude, using forward-focused language, and surrounding yourself with people who elevate your thinking. The episode closes with a reminder that two people can face the exact same circumstances and get radically different outcomes—because the difference begins not with what happens to them, but with what they tell themselves about it.

Video Chapters

0:00 — Welcome & Introduction

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Matt Walsh floated a Social Security deal for boomers this week... you get back what you paid in, but no more. Brian Nichols breaks down why it started the biggest fight of the week, plus Microsoft's H-1B ban and the Talarico Texas Senate shock.
So who's actually paying the bill? Brian digs into the Cato and YouGov Social Security poll everyone shared this week, what it really asked, and what Gallup says about how the generation footing the bill is doing compared to the one cashing the checks.
Then it's who gets to be here. A federal case out of Minnesota has everyone asking who gets to be a citizen. And JD Vance just suspended Microsoft from the Labor Department's PERM green card program... with the H-1B fight landing right here in Indiana at IU.
Plus, two out of three Americans say they want Medicare for All. So what happens to that number once you add a price tag? And with the Kansas Senate race tied, a Libertarian sitting at 3%, and new New York Times and Siena polls out of Texas, Ohio, Alaska and Iowa... are red states getting too comfortable?
It all ends on one question. Would you take the deal? Drop a yes or no in the comments.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Boomers Get the Checks, You Get the Bill
1:14 Matt Walsh's Social Security Deal
3:32 Entitled Boomers vs. Everyone Else
6:56 Who Gets to Be a Citizen?
8:59 Microsoft Banned From Green Cards
10:46 Medicare for All's Price Tag
11:50 Kansas Tied & the Texas Senate Shock
13:21 Nobody Trusts Anything Anymore
14:42 Would You Take the Deal?
SPONSORS
This episode is sponsored by Oasis of Hope Hospital. Free consultation with their medical team - use code TBNS: https://www.oasisofhope.com
Cardio Miracle - 15% off with code TBNS: https://cardiomiracle.com/TBNS
CONNECT WITH BRIAN
Website: https://briannicholsshow.com
X: https://twitter.com/BNicholsLiberty
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BNicholsLiberty
Email: [email protected]
New episodes every Thursday. Recorded at Cardio Miracle Studios in eastern Indiana.
Educated. Enlightened. Informed.

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This week on Politicks: the boys wonder whether the rumors of TX Senate candidate James Talrico being in a mental health facility are true or not, touch on sexually transmitted diarrhea (not physically) and laugh at Obama's Presidential Library work stopping because of worker revolt.

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On this week's Mean Age Daydream, Brian breaks down the lies being peddled in France during "student" riots that are burning down cities and schools, then turns to the Cornell sexual assault lawsuit and the madness it's caused. Also: Boomers want to tax the young to pay for social security, and "Digger" is an all time flop.

Buy my new card game: WOKE WORD WARS - ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Word-Wars-Ridiculously-Players/dp/B0FLF8Y16S⁠
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David Zhang built a 1.4 million subscriber YouTube channel exposing the Chinese Communist Party — from his base in the US, where he can actually say what he thinks. Born in China, raised in Canada, now in New York, David breaks down how Beijing operates: surveillance, threats to family members back home, and a propaganda machine that's gotten scarily good at targeting Western audiences.

We get into TikTok as a weapon, China's economy cratering under Xi Jinping, the comedian who got an entire stand-up competition banned for one joke about the PLA, and the doctrine of "unrestricted warfare" — Beijing's playbook for taking down the US without a single bullet. Plus: the four olds Mao tried to destroy, Chinese tourists at the Louvre, and the Asian gene that means David didn't need deodorant until he was 27.

Subscribe to China Insider with David Zhang and follow Lou on all platforms below.

 David Zhang

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChinaInsiderWithDavidZhang/videos

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ

Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081

Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697

 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r

 TheLouPerez.com |  [email protected]

 Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

#DavidZhang #ChinaInsider #CCP #TikTok #China #FreeSpeech #LouPerezPodcast

0:00 – Intro: David Zhang & China Insider

1:52 – Born in China, moved to Canada at 11, then the US

4:33 – Free speech in China: three different threat levels

7:25 – How the CCP threatens creators outside China

9:31 – Stand-up comedy in China — and the joke that got it banned

13:37 – Is being gay legal in China?

15:10 – 1.4M subscribers and the bot armies in his comments

17:04 – Why David's family left China

18:35 – China's billionaires and the capitalism secret

23:21 – Shanghai's LED light shows vs. actual economic collapse

26:54 – FreedomFest Vegas and dying American small towns

30:03 – Outsourcing, COVID, and what we can't let China control

33:30 – Taiwan, TSMC, and the chip supply nightmare

34:36 – "America Against America": Wang Huning's playbook

38:37 – TikTok data harvesting and information warfare

43:06 – Has David ever been back to China?

44:11 – Chinese tourists, the Louvre, and materialism without morality

46:30 – Mao's "Four Olds" and destroying Chinese culture

50:28 – The Asian gene: David didn't need deodorant until 27

51:59 – Wrap-up

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The progressive left spent decades building institutional control over American academia, using it as a pipeline to reshape corporate culture, HR departments, and public policy. The fuel that kept that machine running was the nearly unlimited flow of government-subsidized student loans—now a $1.7 trillion portfolio—regardless of whether graduates could actually earn a living. The Trump administration's new Earnings Accountability Rule threatens that foundation by tying federal loan eligibility to post-graduation income, forcing programs whose graduates don't out-earn high school diploma holders to lose funding. This episode breaks down how cutting off the money could cascade beyond student debt into the entire progressive institutional infrastructure, from DEI offices to corporate hiring mandates. The takeaway: the most durable response to institutional capture is to build an income and a life that doesn't depend on gatekeepers whose power is built on your tax dollars.

Video Chapters

00:00 — Introduction: The Threat to Progressive Institutional Control

01:14 — Welcome to Finding Freedom & Show Updates

02:57 — How Institutions Maintain Control: Money & Credentials

04:52 — The Earnings Accountability Rule Explained

06:41 — Which Programs Are Getting Hit Hardest

09:10 — What American Academia Actually Became

12:59 — The Campus-to-Corporate Pipeline & the Rise of DEI

15:52 — Broader Actions Against Institutional Capture

17:36 — What Happens When the Money Stops

19:16 — Key Takeaways: Build Your Own Table

22:00 — Closing Thoughts & Final Question

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Stephen Ferry joins Brian Nichols to reveal what the general welfare clause actually meant in 1787, and why America's 250th birthday finds us $40 trillion in debt and arguing over a Constitution most people can't explain.
Kids can recite the Preamble. 52 words. One sentence. Six purposes sitting right there in the text...
But ask a civics teacher to name all six? Good luck.
Stephen is the new national spokesperson for Citizens Academy U.S., and their guide walks the Preamble word by word using Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary. So why does a 200-year-old dictionary get to be the referee?
And Brian pushes back. Hard. Words change. Kleenex. Xerox. Google. And with H-1B visas, a shifting culture, and a federal government bigger than any in history... does defining the words even matter anymore?
So... can a dictionary save the Constitution? Or are we too far gone?
CHAPTERS
0:00 The 2 Phrases Washington Spends $40 Trillion On
1:51 Who Is Stephen Ferry?
2:47 Is the Constitution Dead in 2026?
3:45 Are We Too Far Gone?
4:32 The 1690 Warning Nobody Listened To
9:42 Civics Teachers Can't Name the 6 Purposes
10:29 The Guy Who Only Showed Up Because His Wife Made Him
12:56 Why People Check Out of the Constitution
15:59 What "Welfare" Means in 2026
19:17 What "Welfare" Meant in 1787
22:37 The Culture Question Nobody Wants to Touch
27:26 Who Actually Gets Taught What America Is?
30:26 Does the Constitution Need Fresh Eyes?
33:10 Political Enemies Walked In, Allies Walked Out
35:50 How to Do the Guide Yourself
39:09 The Free November 8 Constitution Talk
GUEST LINKS
Citizens Academy U.S.: https://citizensacademy.us
The Guide to Complete Understanding of the Preamble: https://citizensacademy.us/about-the-guide
Free E-Book: https://citizensacademy.us/the-preamble-e-book
Free Live Constitution Talk, Sunday, Nov 8, 2026: https://citizensacademy.us/understand-the-constitution
BRIAN NICHOLS
Website: https://www.briannicholsshow.com
X: https://x.com/BNicholsLiberty
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BNicholsLiberty
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bnicholsliberty
Email: [email protected]

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On this week's Mean Age Daydream, Brian rips the horrifically racist black writers on HBO's "Lanterns," and cites an unacceptable trend in Hollywood and society. Also: a court rules that car companies can record your in-car calls without your knowledge, which police can access.

Buy my new card game: WOKE WORD WARS - ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Word-Wars-Ridiculously-Players/dp/B0FLF8Y16S⁠
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