No matter how much I read about it, stories about QAnon are always good for a morbid chuckle.

QAnon exists as a kind of parallel history which a "deep state" took over decades ago. An all-encompassing theory of the world, it's able to tie together and explain everything from "Pizzagate" to ISIS to the prevalence of mass shootings and the JFK assassination.

Many Q fans believe that President Kennedy was set to reveal the existence of the secret government when he was assassinated. They also believe President Reagan was shot on the deep state's orders, and that all the presidents since he left office – with the exception of Mr. Trump -- have been deep state agents.

The military, eager to see the deep state overthrown, recruited Mr. Trump to run for president. But the deep state, which controls the media, quickly tried to smear him through "fake news" and unfounded allegations of collusion with Russia.

Despite the deep state's best efforts, however, Mr. Trump is winning. Q is releasing sanctioned leaks to the public in order to galvanize them ahead of "The Storm," which is the moment when the deep state's leaders are arrested and sent to Guantanamo Bay. Q's adherents have called this process "the great awakening."

The storm takes its name from Mr. Trump enigmatic comment last October about "the calm before the storm." Q began posting soon after, and said that the storm Mr. Trump referenced are a coming series of mass arrests that would end the deep state forever.

In QAnon lore, Mr. Trump is secretly working with special counsel Robert Mueller to bring the deep state down, and the storm is a kind of Judgment Day to in which the evildoers are punished and the faithful are redeemed. Q has repeatedly suggested that the storm would hit in the very near future, and has even said certain people would be arrested at certain dates. When those dates come and go without any arrests, Q says that they needed to be delayed for one reason or another, but that Mr. Trump still has the situation well in hand.

The GOP is a cult.