#3036: Larry Holcombe

Larry Holcombe is an author, ufologist, conspiracy theorist and generally somewhat colorful figure. He is perhaps most famous for his 2015 book The Presidents And UFOs: A Secret History From FDR To Obama, which alleges that all presidents since FDR have had extensive knowledge about UFOs and extraterrestrials (there are apparently “four ... races of extraterrestrials that visit Earth, one of which is considered hostile”), have wanted to go public with the information, and have been consistently blocked by intelligence officials for reasons that remain somewhat diffuse. Holcombe’s book is accordingly a bit repetitive, with the same basic story told for each president: some civilians and/or military people see a strange object; the observers are told to keep quiet while the Air Force debunks; additional details later leak out. Though Holcombe attempts to prop up the narrative with official documents, it should be unnecessary to mention that the evidence for extraterrestrials in general and his narrative in particular remain – to put it diplomatically – inconclusive.

 

It is all very, very standard fare for UFO conspiracy theorists. Holcombe also believes “that Roswell, and the bungling of crash retrieval events, was the defining moment in the development of the United States policy towards the UFO issue”, complains about “media indifference to the UFO issue” and has, as is virtually required (and unavoidable) for people in his business, had his own UFO encounter back in 1995. Coast to Coast AM has naturally picked up the story.

 

Diagnosis: The realization that ‘Wait, the program that is featuring my story is Coast to Coast AM’ should beget some moments of self-reflection for reasonable people. At least Larry Holcombe seems to be generally harmless.

 

#3035: Rene Holaday

A.k.a. Rene’ Holaday (adding punctuation to your name is a typical sovereign citizen step to mark a perceived distinction between their human identity and the ‘strawman’ corporate entity they allege the government created in their name)

 

Rene Holaday is a Washington-based horse breeder turned self-taught “UN researcher”, and she has traveled around (e.g. to events like the Montana Red Pill Festival) and published a book (The Perils of Sustainable Development) seeking to expose the UN’s “senseless human-hating programs” that will turn Americans into “indentured slaves.” As Holaday sees it, the UN plans to turn the US into a kind of feudal society where citizens have no rights beyond whatever the “evil ruling lords” allow them. As evidence, she points to various Sustainable Cities initiatives, adding that the UN is going to force people to live and stay within these as captive slaves. The fact that the programs Holaday attributes to the UN do not make any sense whatsoever and the fact that the UN has absolutely no power to control US decision-making are details she seems thoroughly confused about – rather, according to Holaday, if you don’t stand up now you will “lose everything you have ever grown to know and love in this country, like private property rights, individual rights, rights of man over earth and animal, rights to live where you choose, rights to eat the foods you want to eat, rights to own livestock and pets, etc, etc.” According to herself, her book on these issues was “the FIRST Book in the USA on The UN's Agenda 21(-50)”, and it was apparently gifted to President Trump himself by former Washington State Senator, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture during Trump I, and deranged conspiracy theorist Brian Dansel as part of Dansel pestering Trump about Agenda 21.

 

Now, there are of course lots of these delusionally paranoid clowns around, but Holaday has at least enjoyed the attention of local politicians and local militia-affiliated organizations, which is a bit alarming. Holaday did for instance serve as Washington State Representative Matt Shea’s legislative assistant for a while, until she was fired by the Chief Clerk’s Office of the state legislature for participating in an event promoting the secession of several Washington counties from the state to form the state of Liberty (“It’s either going to be bloodshed or Liberty State,” said Holaday).

 

Indeed, Holaday tried to run for election to the U.S. House herself in 2024, representing Washington’s 5th Congressional District as a “Christian MAGA Republican”, but failed to advance beyond the primary. According to her own campaign materials, Holaday had “won multiple times against” Agenda 21 “at the local, State, and National levels” (basically Agenda 21 seems to be the perceived agent behind everything she doesn’t like): she e.g. “saved both Stevens and Spokane County from one of the biggest UN programs coming down from the State level”. And apparently “I win because I know the Constitution, and I use Sun Tzu strategy”. In addition to lowering gas prices, “restoring God over this nation” [?], and banning “Electronic Voting Machines and Mail-in Ballots” her platform also promised to … well, it’s worth quoting her:

 

“As a UN expert, I know that the UN’s form of governance is based upon the Communist Manifesto, with Fascism as their economic model. To have the UN in America, and entrenched in all of our local, State, and National Government, says that we have Communism subverting everything happening in America right now. Did you know the term 'The Deep State’ is synonymous with Communism as well? [you didn’t know that, did you?] I studied Government and foreign governance structures in college, and used that education to fight and win against the UN’s Communist programs that seek to ‘Dethrone God, and destroy Capitalism’-Karl Marx [nope]. As a Constitution Buff, I know that ALL Communism in America is ILLEGAL and will fight it from China too!”

 

We imagine that reading her whole book would take some effort.

 

Diagnosis: Yes, she is profoundly confused about a whole lot of things, but apparently also has lots of fury and paranoia to motivate flailing around on the impulses that bubble to the surface of her stream of consciousness. Given the political climate, she might have a significant career ahead of her.

 

Hat-tip: mtcowgirl

 

#3034: Leo Hohmann

  

Leo Hohmann is a news editor for WND, general wingnut and denialist, and author of the WND-published Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad. Yes, Hohmann is concerned about Muslims and, in particular, Muslim immigration to the US. According to Hohmann, ordinary Muslim Americans are “Muslim in name only” and not true followers of the Quran; “radical terrorists”, on the other hand, are simply “dedicated” Muslims who devoutly abide by the prescriptions of the Quran. Things are apparently with regard to Christians and Christianity.

 

Yes, anti-Islam conspiracy theories are a mainstay in Hohmann’s works. In 2014, for instance, Hohmann claimed (in “Secret Weapon to Take Over America Revealed”) that the Obama administration’s commitment to take in refugees from Syria was in fact part of a UN-orchestrated plot (a “stealth jihad”) to pave way for an Islamist takeover of America (complete with fabricated quotes). Now, Hohmann admitted of his reporting that “if you’re not listening carefully or if you come to this story from a different worldview, it can sound like we’re being racist or somehow bigoted”, but, he countered by asserting that he isn’t actually being bigoted since Islam is not a religion and Muslim-Americans are lying about their plan to become the majority in America and institute Sharia law. Well, then.

 

Indeed, his view on Islam permeates his views on other social issues as well. For instance, Hohmann is no fan of abortion or gay marriage, a main reason being that allowing legal abortion and gay marriage creates a population “vacuum” to be filled by Muslims. Abortion (including family planning) and gay marriage have already caused Europe to be more or less taken over by Muslims, and America is heading in the same direction because, according to polling, fewer Americans currently believe in God (also: gay marriage will lead to divine “obliteration” of America). And, of course, these tendencies aren’t simply accidental: in 2016, for instance, Hohmann suggested that then-Rep. Keith Ellison’s support for LGBT equality and abortion rights was merely a “smokescreen” for his goal of imposing Islamic law. (Come on: what other reason could you have for supporting marriage equality or abortion right than your wish to impose Islamic theocracy?)

 

Hohmann has contributed other types of delusional nuttery to the WND as well, including anti-vaccine conspiracy theories (e.g. here). In order to establish plausible deniability, Hohmann often publishes such kinds of nonsense and conspiracy theories as reports on what other fringe conspiracy groups (like America’s Frontline Doctors) are up to, though Hohmann has pushed explicitly pseudoscientific conspiracy theories about e.g. mRNA vaccines (e.g.“Will you allow Big Pharma to install its ‘computer operating system’ into your body?”) as well. His list of conspiracy theories published under the cover of JAQing off or reports on the antics of others is colorful; for instance, in 2015, Hohmann wondered whether the 2015 Jade Helm military exercise could be “the government preparing for some major future event that will bring chaos to America” as forewarned by blood moons and the fact that Pope Francis will visit the White House on the 266^th day of the year and is the 266th pope and 266 days is the typical human gestation period from conception to birth (also this); apparently “Bible prophecy expert” Paul McGuire explaining how the U.S. dollar proves that America was founded by Illuminati/Freemason occultists and how Christians need to fight this “Luciferian power” had something to do with things, too. Pope Francis, by the way, was busy paving the way for a one-world communist world government, which is also the goal of the UN, and they are of course using Islam as a means (trying to “merge Christianity with Islam”) to this end. So it goes.

 

Diagnosis: Paranoid moron.

#3033: Lewis & Rachel Hogan

  

Lewis & Rachel Hogan are a couple of Texas-based pastors (something called ‘United Cry Ministries’) and activists on behalf of the Family Research Council – they’re also affiliated with Lou Engle’s fundie extremist prayer rallies The Call and participated for instance in the 2017 fundie DC event Awaken the Dawn and its associated Rise Up prayer rally (which the Christian Broadcasting Network called a “Holy Spirit Woodstock”). Lewis Hogan was also the organizer of the 2016 event United Cry DC 16, which had a lineup encompassing several of the high-profile fundie extremists of the day (from Harry Jackson to Rick Perry) and which was broadcast on GodTV. Yeah, that kind.

 

The Hogans are the kinds of people who claim that the 2016 election of Trump was a sign of “the hand of God answering prayers”. Apparently they also dabble in prophecy, though they seem to favor the more waffly kind (“Pentecost Sunday this year will be incredibly significant, like a line of demarcation: on May 31st the church will be entering a new season, a true Acts 2 season”) – it’s hard to catch them in any clear and precisely identifiable false prophecy there, though garbled fundie derangement undeniably shines through.

 

Diagnosis: We’re sure they think they are fighting for the good guys. They are not. And, to repeat ourselves: There are lots of these, and together they are able to do a great deal of harm.

#3032: Joe Hoft

We’ve already covered Jim Hoft, founder of and principal writer for the popular source of wingnuttery and disinformation The Gateway Pundit (GP), and we grudgingly concede that his twin brother, Joe Hoft, should have his own entry, even though there is little of substance to distinguish them in terms of style, content or degree of lunacy.

 

So, Joe Hoft is for instance a rabid promoter of stop the steal conspiracy theories. Among other things, Hoft called on then-VP Mike Pence to throw out electoral votes he (Hoft) didn’t like: “If Pence steps up and throws out the electoral votes in certain states where rampant fraud ensued, he will go down in history as one of the most courageous leaders of our generation. If he approves the nomination of Joe Biden, he will go down as the greatest traitor in history.” And Joe Hoft was the architect behind GP’s “Reward Offered: $10,000 to the First Individual Who Can Successfully Address and Defend as Legitimate the 2020 Election Anomaly Referred to as the ‘Drop and Roll’”. Well, the ‘anomaly’ referred to is easily explained, but no: you won’t get any monetary reward for doing so. GP, of course, went all in on election conspiracy theories, including deranged nonsense about crisis actors in Florida, and ended up getting sued for defamation by Georgia election workers and by Dominion Voting Systems – indeed, TGP Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2024 to get around all the defamation lawsuits, but a federal judge dismissed the filing as the “bad faith” attempt to avoid accountability for lawsuits from election workers that it obviously was (they ended up settling).

 

On other occasions, Joe Hoft has called for Democrats to be hanged for attempting to impeach Trump on the grounds that trying to impeach a president Joe Hoft fancies is “seditious and treasonous”. Indeed, Joe Hoft has not shied away from promoting (numerous) QAnon-adjacent and QAnon-reminiscent conspiracy theories about Trump and the mythical Deep State, such as this one and his 2019 declaration that Trump offered “various hints that the Deep State may soon face justice” – the hints being things like Hoft’s interpretation of Trump as being “very calm” at Trump rallies where the topic was broached.

 

Diagnosis: His brother has been identified as the dumbest man on the internet, and we have a hard time not seeing Joe Hoft as something of a Felix to Jim’s Calvin Fischoeder.

 

#3031: Frank Hoffmann

  

This is an older one, but Frank Hoffmann is apparently still around, and his successors are unfortunately not unlikely to take up his legacy, so he still deserves an entry. Hoffmann represented House District 15 in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 2008 to 2020 and was vice chairman of the House Education Committee, a position he used to try to undermine public education in Louisiana as much as possible – ad that he previously worked as a teacher and superintendent himsels makes his antics all the more disconcerting.

 

Hoffmann was, as sponsor of House Bill 1168, one of the architects behind the Louisiana Academic Freedom Act, which sought to promote science denialism concerning “evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning” in Louisiana public schools using teach-the-controversy-style language. As superintendent, Hoffmann had already succeeded in getting the Ouachita Parish School Board to adopt similar policies. And it is worth noting that Hoffmann subsequently voted against adopting biology textbooks that presented the theory of evolution as well-supported by evidence.

 

Indeed, even the Louisiana Academic Freedom Act wasn’t sufficient for Hoffmann, who in 2011 also sponsored HOUSE BILL NO. 580 (a stealth creationism measure colloquially known as the Flat-Earth Option bill), which would allow local public schools to decide on their own to use state money for purchasing any textbooks they want without state supervision (the state senate counterpart was sponsored by Mike Walsworth). That one died, but not without hard fight. And it wasn’t Hoffmann’s last attempt.

 

Diagnosis: Hopefully out of power for good. But Hoffmann being out probably doesn’t lead to much improvement, unfortunately.

#3030: Tom Hoefling

  

More wingnuts! And this one is also a presidential candidate. Thomas Conrad Hoefling is the founder and national chairman of America’s Party and the party’s 2012, 2016 and 2020 presidential nominee, after seeking but failing to gain the highly competitive nominations for the Constitution Party and the American Independent Party. In 2012, at least, he received some 40,000 votes in total. Hoefling has also served as political director for Alan Keyes’ group America’s Revival and has been a representative for the American Conservative Coalition. 

 

His 2020 platform was focused primarily on his opposition to “the abortion holocaust”. Indeed, Hoefling views abortion as a form of cannibalism: “The bodies of aborted, i.e. murdered, children […] are being cannibalized, with their plundered cells being used to make vaccines” – no, Hoefling doesn’t fancy vaccines (and needless to say, his conspiracy rantings about them are bonkers false) – and “the intelligentsia of our time not only insist on making these products of cannibalism AVAILABLE to the general public, they INSIST on making the injections MANDATORY”, thereby not only letting us get away with being cannibals but saying that “to be a responsible citizen, you and your (unaborted) children MUST BE CANNIBALS”. And no, as Hoefling falsely sees it, vaccines didn’t save us from disease; rates of vaccine-preventable disease fell, according (mistakenly) to Hoefling, due to increased “knowledge about sanitation, human physiology, and health,” not vaccines; quite the opposite: “When doctors insist on going down the cursed path of a Mengele [i.e. by offering vaccines], the only thing that can follow, inevitably, is a curse on our nation.” He is, by the way, not the only lunatic to have compared vaccines to cannibalism.

 

For his presidential campaigns, Hoefling had views on e.g. education as well: children should be “taught, with a solid biblical basis, by their parents, their pastors, and trusted fellow citizens in the old hometown” and not by “far off (spiritually/philosophically hostile) bureaucrats or hired hands”. And you can, if you want, read Hoefling’s chaotically paranoid rants on perceived communist influences in America here. He is also very concerned about the homosexual agenda and the anti-religious conspiracy led by academia and media that “don’t examine issues but follow emotional and often illogical propaganda” in their support of e.g. gay marriage.

 

At least Hoefling has been a consistent and vehement critic of Donald Trump  and MAGA, in particular over their involvement in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, and he has compared Trump to a tyrant and called for the Senate to convict Trump and bar him from ever holding office again – Hoefling also dismisses 2020 election conspiracy theories. As for the 2016 election, Hoefling denounced Trump as a “liberal friend” and “financial backer” of Clinton … so ok, even his opposition to Trump is not quite a stopped-clock moment.

 

Diagnosis: Fringe lunatic; probably largely harmless.