March Madness is the name given to the college basketball championships in the US but it may acquire an additional significance this year. One of the features of apocalyptic cults is that when the predicted day of reckoning fails to materialize, they simply shift the day. This is happening with the QAnon and other dead-enders who believe that Trump should still be president. After the overthrow of the election did not occur on January 6th despite their riot, they thought that Trump would seize power on inauguration day. When that did not happen and he slunk off to Florida, they needed a new day and it appears that Thursday, March 4th is the one.

House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., cited QAnon chatter surrounding March 4 during a hearing this week with defense officials flagged by CNN.

“Some of these people have figured out that apparently 75 years ago, the president used to be inaugurated on March 4,” Smith said. “Now why that’s relevant, God knows. At any rate, now they are thinking maybe we should gather again and storm the Capitol on March 4 … that is circulating online.”
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Setting unrealistic timelines for world-changing events is nothing new in QAnon world, said Julian Feeld, co-host of the “QAnon Anonymous” podcast, which details the “best conspiracies of the post-truth era.” QAnon followers previously wrongly predicted that Trump would usher in “The Storm” in October 2018, which they dubbed “Red October,” and again in December 2018, and then again in March 2019, just to name a few.

“It’s kind of like an evangelical cult waiting for the rapture,” said Robert Guffey, an author and lecturer at California State University, Long Beach, who tracks the movement. “It doesn’t happen so you’ve got to push the day back, and then it doesn’t happen again — push the day back.”

Apparently Trump has decided to milk these suckers by raising the prices at the Trump hotel just for that day.

The Trump Organization appears to have taken notice of the chatter too. The Trump International Hotel in Washington has jacked up its room rates for March 3 and 4 by nearly $1,000, Forbes first reported. It was the only hotel in the nation’s capital to increase rates for those days — and has not increased them on surrounding days. The hotel similarly raised its prices dramatically for Jan. 5 and 6, the dates around the deadly Capitol riot.

These rioters must be pretty well-heeled to be able to afford such prices.

If that day doesn’t pan out, then March 20th may be the new date. These people had better book their rooms now before Trump raises the prices in anticipation.