#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.

 

#3029: Dave Hodges

Dave Hodges is an Alex Jones-wannabe conspiracy theorist who hosts The Common Sense Show, a radio talk show dedicated to bringing you information about what’s really going on in the world that They don’t want you to know about. His bio lists him as a “psychology, sociology, statistics and research professor” though is, perhaps not very surprisingly, sparse on details about affiliations and actual credentials; we’re sure Hodges feels very strongly that he is competent at analyzing current events, though. Currently, Hodges’s show seems to be a rather prominent one among a plethora of insane wingnut clown shows (Sheila Zilinsky, Jim Garrow, Rick Wiles and so on) whose hosts tend to interview each other and other wingnut influencers, and who occasionally has managed to pull in politicians and others with genuine power into their orgy of hateful insanity. He is apparently also spokesperson for something called The American Coalition to Protect Personal Property Rights, a group dedicated to “combat the growing erosion of personal property rights across America”.

 

Most recently, Hodges’s show has been particularly focused on spreading conspiracy theories about the murder of Charlie Kirk (“THE CIA IS BEHIND EVERY PRESIDENTIAL DEMISE AND ACTIVISTS LIKE CHARLIE KIRK”), and he seems very unhappy about the direction Turning Point USA has been taking (it is apparently currently a puppet organization for Israel and the Zionist agenda), but Hodges has covered a remarkable range of idiotic conspiracy theories on his show over the years – he’s impressively productive, which is easier to be when you apply Hodges’s standards for evidence and fact checking – and has been instrumental in promulgating most of the various paranoia-driven conspiracy theories that have gone viral in wingnut circles the last decade or so. In particular, it seems that batshit insane conspiracy theories surrounding the Jade Helm military exercise in 2015 was something of a milestone in Hodges’s rise to prominence in paranoid wingnut circles – Hodges outlined a conspiracy theory involving FEMA camps, foreign troops, and false flags, and – in a conversation with Jason Van Tatenhove, then National Media Director for the Oath Keepers and co-host of something called The Liberty Brothers – putative government plans to use NSA threat-matrix scores to determine whether American citizens were to be executed by government death squads (the military itself was also being bamboozled here, and the government would ultimately rely on the aforementioned foreign troops to finish the job).

 

At the time of Jade Helm, however, Hodges had already established himself as a purveyor of nonsense. Did you know, for instance, that in 2013, then-President Obama was preparing an executive order to give away 8 states to Mexico to form the nation of Aztlan? Apparently, Obama did so after trying (and failing) to pass the resolution through Senate Bill 744, the text of which is here (Hodges was presumably ‘reading between the lines’). And in 2016, the government, with the use of “Nazi occupation storm troopers”, had “taken over Eastern Oregon” – Hodges was apparently referring to checkpoints set up for anyone trying to get into the Malheur wildlife refuge where there was an ongoing standoff with Ammon Bundy and his gang who had taken over federal property (a topic Hodges covered extensively). In general, Hodges recommended taking up arms against Obama and taking him down through guerrilla warfare: Obama “is definitely an imposter, he’s a traitor. He needs to be in jail […] But my fear is that our military, because we’re so dispersed all over the world, we’re not strong enough domestically to stand up to the Russians and Chinese that are here or will be here soon, and then their Canadian allies as well, as well as anybody else that might wear the blue helmet of the UN. So I think we don’t have any choice but to really engage in guerrilla warfare, long-term guerrilla warfare.”

 

And of course, nefarious Deep State plots just kicked it up a notch under Trump. By 2018, for instance, Obama was forming a private army that would work with the gang MS-13 to assassinate government officials in order to force the United Nations to impose martial law on America and reinstall him as leader – for this information, Hodges cited “sources” (but come on: the primary evidence is of course that “Democrats are the dirtiest organization to ever exist in this country, they're on a level with ISIS”, and if you wondered whether it is correct to say that the Democrats are on a level with ISIS, Hodges would of course cite things like Obama’s attempt to form a private army with MS-13 to assassinate government leaders, and so on, in an airtight epistemic loop). By then, Hodges was of course deeply mired in QAnon-related conspiracy nonsense (like this one or this one). Meanwhile, we’ll let headlines like “The Use of Manchurian Mind-Controlled Subjects to Disrupt Trump’s Political Events” speak for themselves.

 

Importantly, such nefarious plots didn’t all originate with people officially associated with the Democratic Party either: there are agents of darkness all of over the place – Brett Kavanaugh, for instance: Hodges stated that the confirmation of Kavanaugh would signal the start of a Chinese/Russian EMP attack on America, launched from Puerto Rico. (No, he doesn’t use the success rate of previous predictions to inform what credence he – or his listeners – should place in new ones; that’s not the kind of evidence that registers with Dave Hodges.)

 

Diagnosis: Yes, batshit crazy, of course. Dave Hodges is deeply paranoid and has a wild imagination unfettered by the constraints of reason, rationality or evidence. And his show seems to be something of a go-to source for similar-minded people, of which there are, apparently, very, very many.