The "Hired Goons" stage.

As a general rule, "vote for our guy or we'll
fucking end you" is probably a sign that you
should reevaluate your political leanings.

I guess what I'm saying is that you might be voting for the wrong people if they're doing shit like hiring cops to intimidate voters. I say this because this. It's a story from the Star Tribune, a Minnesota paper-ok, news site because news papers aren't really at thing anymore. Anyway, it's about how the Minneapolis police union is hiring retired police to watch the polls in "problem areas" around the city. To watch the polls on behalf of the Trump campaign. Yup, we're now at the "hired goons" stage of collapsing democracy.

Nobody likes lockdo-and are they going to
shoot the virus? What's even their plan here?

This request came from William Willingham, an attorney for the Trump Campaign. He's asking Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis police union to recruit "poll challengers" and is careful to say that they shouldn't carry weapons or look intimidating but I mean, they're going to. Look intimidating and carry weapons I mean. Like, we're talking about a bunch of ex-cops staring down voters in a state where Trump fans circled the state house waving guns out their pickup truck windows (again with the pickups) because they didn't like the COVID lockdown. 

Pictured: the President violating
Federal regulation 2635.702.
Not pictured: consequences.

Of course they're going to carry weapons and Willingham is just going to say "Well, I told them not to. Whatta you gonna do?" It's the Trump era MO: do a crime, reap the benefit of said crime and then accuse anyone who calls you out on it of politicizing something. And I get that unions routinely endorse political candidates. That's normal. Hiring people to intimidate voters is not. In fact, it's against state and federal law, although, c'mon, when has that stopped the GOP? 

Hey, and what do you suppose Willingham means when he says "problem areas" or "rough neighborhoods?" Because, I mean, in the infinite universes suggested by our admittedly limited understanding of quantum mechanics, there is no world, no parallel reality in which this doesn't refer to neighborhoods expected to lean Democratic. Not one.

Above: a rough neighborhood.

(source: William Willingham,

attorney for the Trump campaign)

In defense of 2020:

Although for that, I can never forgive it.

Oh, wow, I mean, 2020, amiright? Like, what else can it throw at us? Aliens? Locusts? A world-ending asteroid? 2020's just the worst. But is it though? We're a week away from an election in the midst of several crises, and I think it's important to bear in mind that 2020 didn't do anything to us. It's been a rough year, sure, for all of us-but again, it's not 2020's fault. 2020's just an arbitrary number that helps us keep track of how old we are and when we have to renew our license. Everything that's wrong now has causes. Quantifiable, traceable causes that could have been avoided. The only thing 2020 ever did to us is render our 2019 calendars obsolete. 

I guess what I'm getting at is that rolling our eyes and going ugh...2020 isn't placing blame where blame is due and it's giving a pass to the people and things that have made this year, and the years leading up to it, such an unmitigated goat-rodeo.

Pictured: 2020 and the years leading up to it.

Pictured: some of the shell casings
outside Breonna Taylor's apartment.
Not pictured: 2020.

2020 didn't invent the institutional racism that's been a part of American culture for centuries. It never called anyone the n-word and it never shouted all lives matter. 2020 never broke into the wrong apartment and shot anyone and it never kneeled on anybody's neck. Nobody ever died mysteriously in 2020's custody, and 2020's bosses and union never covered anything up. To my knowledge 2020 hasn't high-fived any gun-toting minors on their way to shoot protestors and it didn't shove a seventy-five year old man to the ground and then lie about it.

"Hate group? No, we just use intimidation
and violence to assert white male supremacy."

-Proud Boys

And not once did 2020 tear gas and club protestors so it could wave a Bible in front of a church it's never set foot inside of. It didn't put armed, unmarked, and completely uninvited quasi-police on to the streets of American cities. When it was off duty it didn't cover its face and smash windows in order to incite more police violence and blame it on the protestors. Being a number and not say, a violent goon, at no point did 2020 hop in its pickup truck and try to run over protestors. And 2020 didn't blow its racist dog whistle and tell armed hate groups to stand by in case it needs to overturn some election results.

Coronavirus is dangerous but controllable.
Coronavirus in the respiratory system of a
willfully ignorant narcissist is a national crisis. 

2020 didn't ignore the pandemic or tell the American people that it was a hoax and it didn't spread false information or prematurely re-open businesses or hold rallies and it didn't get up in front of reporters and whip its mask off before wheezing its way through a bunch of nonsense about how the victims of COVID died because they didn't try hard enough. It didn't endanger White House staff with its recklessness, and it didn't cram its contagious ass into a limo with Secret Service agents so it could take a spin around Walter Reed and wave at people. Even the virus itself can't be blamed for that.

2020 hasn't been dismantling the Post Office because it's afraid of people's ballots getting in on time. It didn't set up fake ballot boxes and doesn't close polling places in districts that lean Democratic. It isn't trying to pass restrictive voter ID laws and it isn't shrieking about voter fraud while at the same time committing voter fraud. 

"It's only voter fraud when Democrats do it.
When we do it, we're safeguarding the election."

-The GOP

But without the electoral college, the votes of
people in less populated states would-uh well, I 
guess they'd count as much as everyone else's...

And look, 2020 didn't saddle us with an outmoded electoral system designed to keep rural states from feeling under appreciated and it didn't spend the last ten years gaming it so that it could stay in power. See where I'm going with all of this? 2020 isn't the problem. People are the problem. Well, specifically people who vote for Republicans. And ok, fine, they didn't invent the electoral college, but they sure as hell have been getting the most out of it. Two of the five Presidential elections I've been able to vote in have gone to the candidate most voters didn't vote for. If it happens again, that'll be half.

Is he holding their families and pets hostage?
Because it can't possibly be his charm.

That's not democracy, that's a crap shoot. But not all Republicans, right? Sure, fine. But since GOP Senators aren't exactly calling the administration out on its coddling and encouragement of white supremacists, and because they've done nothing but enable this feckless goon most of us didn't vote for, yes all Republicans. There I said it. And I'm not even a little sorry. I mean, all but one of them just rammed through Ruth Bader Ginsburg's conservative replacement a week before a Presidential election. So again, all Republicans.

Voting isn't going to cure COVID and it's not
going to make the MAGA goons go away,  but it's
something we can do to make things suck less.

So all this to say, leave 2020 alone and go vote. Specifically go vote Democratic. What? I know I'm not the boss of you, I'm just using my platform and speaking to my readers. Yes, both of you. This isn't the time to make the point that we need a third party, or to write in Bernie Sanders. I love Bernie too, but there was exactly zero chance he was going to convert any on-the-fence conservatives and since the current President is being coy about whether or not he'll accept the results, we have to vote him out if we would like to have elections in the future.

Pictured: the woman most of us voted
for but isn't President somehow.

And by such an irrefutable margin that no amount of missing absentee ballots, artificially long lines in Georgia, and Supreme Court Justices the former host of The Apprentice got to appoint will make a difference. Last time Clinton won by three million votes. Three million. And yet the guy who we have on video bragging about sexual assault is the President and he's spent four years lying about how he actually won the popular vote; a nonsense claim nobody in his party has dared to refute. 

No matter what happens, the election is going to be a shit show. But for real, let's stop feeling sorry for ourselves, stop blaming the year 2020 and do something about the racist, misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic, fascists who are openly threatening us with an armed uprising if they don't win.

"Yeah, but Biden and Harris aren't perfect human beings with spotless records and flawless
progressive credentials, so...um...guess I'll just let the country fall into despotism."

-Dumbs, who may be the death of us all

Yeah, but it's still Pong...

Have you ever just been desperate to play Pong? Me neither, but that didn't stop the company currently wearing the skin suit sewn together out of the tanned fragments of the hide of Atari from coming up with Mini Pong Junior. 

"Finally!"

-Nobody

Pictured: there is no grimmer sign of
economic decay than these things springing
up in the decayed remnants of retail.

Yeah, I mean what's even up with this thing? It's a Pong machine. Like, it's a dedicated device that plays Pong and only Pong. As in the game that came out in 1972. Somewhat updated, but still, just Pong. A trail blazer sure, but it's a trail that was paved over a long time ago and is lined with run down strip malls full of Spirit Halloween stores and places that buy gold. So I guess my questions are these: who's damn fool enough to put the money into marketing and selling this? And who is it even for?

Like I mentioned earlier, Atari, as a thing, is long gone. This new incarnation is some weird collection of venture capitalists who bought the name and intellectual property and have been trying to make Atari happen again with things like a new wood-paneled console that may or may not actually exist but costs three hundred dollars, and hotels. Yeah, Atari-themed hotels that will hold esports tournaments. And I guess I'm just not clear on where they got the impression that there's still interest in the brand beyond ironic vintage t-shirts. 

Again, not a business person, but the average age of a pro gamer is 25, so I'm not
sure that betting millions on their nostalgia for a game console their grandparents
might have been into was necessarily the best move. But what do I know?

People also had to occasionally stop
to do the hustle. Because the 70's.

Sure, it represents the golden age of gaming but-no really, that's actually what the era of gaming between between 1971 and 1983 is called, but maybe we need to rethink that. Was it seminal? Absolutely. Foundational even. But good? Eh...I don't know. Ok, fine, that's my 80/90's nerd chauvinism showing. It's subjective I know, and maybe it's because I don't really have nostalgia for it, but gaming back then was marked by crude graphics and sound and gameplay that just increased in difficulty until you gave up in frustration, or just ran out of quarters.

There's a table right next to the kitchen in hell
for whoever put Mega Man 2 on a touch screen.

And ok, it's got one thing going for it that I can see appealing to hardcore Pong fans, if there is such a thing. It uses built-in paddle controllers which is keeping with the original and I suppose sets it apart from most other ways to play Pong on a contemporary device so there's that. Purists won't want to use a directional pad or an analogue stick, and I firmly believe that we should all stop pretending that touch screens aren't inarguably the worst way to control video games.

"Marginally improved graphics and 
sound you say? Let me get my wallet!"

-Some idiot, who is me

But still, nuAtari is assuming that gamers of a certain age are looking for that nostalgia hit and I'm not sure they are. As a grown-ass adult with an admitted Achilles heel for anything that reminds me of the 8 and 16-bit era of gaming-the objectively best era-I get it. I buy mini-consoles and overpriced re-releases of games I already own. I have like seven different version of Final Fantasy II. Seven. But I think it's people my age and younger that fall for this. My parents are from the days of Pong and remember it, but they never had any interest in returning to it. 

Normal, well-adjusted people don't need to live in the past like we do-ok, fine, I'll speak for myself-like I do. And that's fine, and maybe my anecdotal and vague impression of the buying habits of the disco generation isn't as accurate as whatever GDS, the company using the corpse of Atari like a meat-puppet, might be using for marketing research. But I'm going to go ahead and predict that they are grossly overestimating Pong's continuing appeal and that this thing will soon be fodder for clearance shelves and Loot Crates.

I'm not suggesting that people who came of age during the time
of Pong don't have issues. I mean, look at the state of the world. I'm just
saying that falling for video game nostalgia cash-ins isn't one of them.

Eighty seven thousand dollars of novelty!

If you're anything like me, the large black rectangle hanging on your wall or sitting on a table is an intolerable eyesore and you'll pay anything, anything not to have to look at it anymore. You'd even pay, say, eighty seven thousand dollars.

How can people even live like this?

Whoa, whoa, slow down there
Elon Musk. A screen? That rolls up?
 No one has ever dared dream so big!

Yes, of money. Because that's how much South Korean electronics manufacturer LG wants for their Signature OLED R TV. And that requires some explanation. Signature sounds fancy and I think they think it helps people feel better about dropping eighty-seven grand. OLED is an acronym for organic LED and an LED is a light emitting diode. TV stands for TV and the company says R stands for revolutionary and re-define the space, but that's not how acronyms work so it also stands for rollable. Because this TV rolls up into its base when not in use. 

Walls, amiright? I don't know about
you, but I am so sick of their shit...

According to the manufacturer:

"LG's exquisite creation liberates users from the limitations of the wall, enabling owners to curate their living environment without having to permanently set aside space for a large, black screen that is only useful when turned on..."

-LG's somewhat florid and definitely 

overpaid marketing department on 

how this liberates us from walls

It practically pays for itself.

So you can finally buy a flat panel that rolls up. Well, rich people can anyway. The average individual income in the U.S. is about thirty-three thousand, so this costs two and a half times that (source: math). And if that sounds extravagant, that's just because it's extravagant. But bear in mind that instead of having an unsightly black rectangle in your living room when your TV is off, you'll have a somewhat smaller and elongated unsightly black rectangle. In many ways we'd be fools not to buy one. 

Of course, in many more ways we'd be fools to buy one. Because holy shit, I mean, eighty-seven thousand dollars? I mean, sure, hyperbole aside, flat panels are actually not that attractive. They are big, flat, featureless, slabs of reflective nothing. An abyss to stare into. But that kind of money can buy a lot of-well, anything, so I don't know, live with it?

Pictured: eighty seven grand worth of novelty, seen here rapidly wearing off.

The apocalypse kind of bums me out...

So here's my problem with Greenland, and-oh, I should probably explain that I'm referring to the upcoming movie and not the autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.

Although I suppose if I had an issue with Greenland,
as in the island, it would have to be its misleading name.

Since when has actually having
seen a movie been a prerequisite
 for criticizing in on the intenet? 

And I should further explain that I haven't seen Greenland-again, the movie-but rather I am basing my judgement, my pre-judgement on the trailer. This is a movie about a comet striking the earth and one family's struggle to survive it by making their way to some bunker in Greenland. My problem at least with the trailer anyway, is that this means Gerard Butler and Morena Baccairn elbowing people out of their way so they can get themselves into the bunker first. And that just bums me out. Bums me out in a movie about humanity's extinction.

Here, you can watch the trailer yourself and see if you see what I see, but I'm also going to describe it: it opens with Butler, Baccairn and their kid, going about their daily suburban routine whilst rolling their eyes at news reports about a comet which totally isn't going to hit the Earth. I mean, this is America, and if there's one thing it turns out we're great at it's ignoring wanting signs and going about our business. But then the comet hits. Because of course it does. Because movie.

But it hits Florida so...silver lining? What? 
I'll apologize when they get their shit together.

Incidentally, I think Emmerich might have
an intellectual property rights case here. 

Then it's all neighbors trading conspiracy theories and desperate masses of people rushing military transport planes with soldiers shooting at them it's...it's heavy shit. We see Gerrard Butler grab a gun and dramatically vow to get his family into that bunker, goddamnit. Comet fragments are raining down and explosions and can you believe this has nothing to do with Roland Emmerich who I'm pretty sure has made this exact movie like four times already? It's all super-intense and not terribly original, but who doesn't love a disaster movie, right?

This summer, one man will do whatever it
takes to make sure his family doesn't run
out of toilet paper, no matter the cost...

But my issue with this is that we're living through a disaster right now. And while I realize that it's a totally different kind, if Greenland were about a pandemic, Gerrard Butler would be the person hoarding toilet paper and drinking Lysol because some idiot on Facebook said to. The film seems soaked in a kind of me first mentality that isn't necessarily unrealistic-people have been hoarding and turning to quack remedies-just, it's especially depressing when it's the protagonist doing it. 

Although Greenland was filmed pre-pandemic, its release date was pushed back by the very global crisis its comet is serving as a stand-in for making it accidentally prescient. 

Somewhere in this film's universe there's a White House Press Secretary
telling a room full of reporters that this is somehow Obama's fault. 

Above: I'm not sure what's more sci-fi:
moving the Earth to Alpha Centauri or the
 international cooperation that pulls it off.

I watched a Chinese disaster movie recently called The Wandering Earth. Its end of the world scenario is that the sun is going to turn into a red giant and consume the Earth. So all the countries of the world banded together to build fusion thrusters (or something) to move the planet to a new star. And yeah, it's pretty absurd. Anyway, I don't know enough about Chinese sci-fi disaster movies to contrast this one's cooperation and collective good with the individualism that seems to be a part of American sci-fi disasters, but I think I prefer it. 

Really it sucks to be anyone not playing
a named character in one of these movies.

So much of the apocalypse genre asks us to root for some asshole like Butler's character, who bravely steps over hapless victims on their way to safety while the rest of the unfortunate randos are left to to die in spectacular CGI explosions. And I mean, I don't think The Wandering Earth was good, but at least it was about people putting aside the destructive, everyone for themselves, sucks to be you attitude of something like Greenland or 2012 or the actual world in which we live in favor something more hopeful.

Our dumb rugged individualism cost
us Halloween. Hope it was worth it.

I'm not saying that I need every disaster movie to end with some saccharine montage of everyone putting aside their differences and facing a common crisis together. I guess I'm just asking for something a little less, I don't know, Ayn Rand? I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I suggest that maybe if back in March when this whole pandemic started, we were a little less Greenland trailer and a little more The Wandering Earth about wearing masks and avoiding gatherings, we'd be in better shape right now.

And again, I'm basing this assessment and subsequent diatribe entirely on a trailer for a movie I don't care about, so what do I know? Maybe Gerrard Butler or Morena Baccairn's character are like doctors or scientists or something who are totally necessary to help rebuild civilization and there's actually a reason for us to want to see them get to Greenland ahead of everybody else. But I doubt it. I think we're supposed to care because they're the leads. Oh, well, guess I'll just have to wait until I don't see this movie...

Pretty willing to bet that his qualification for
a slot in the bunker is that he's got a gun.

Somewhere between Marx and Charizard

Two hundred twenty thousand, five hundred and seventy four dollars. Of money. That's how much Logic paid for a Pokémon card. Logic the rapper that is. Not reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity. 

Pictured: Logic, seen here with a Pokémon
card worth more than most people's homes.

Nothing against Charizard either. 
Like, c'mon, he's adorable.

Anyway, to be clear, I don't have anything against Logic-again, the recording artist-I really don't. In fact, I'm not super-clear on who he is beyond being that guy who showed up on Rick and Morty one time. As I've previously indicated, I'm out of touch. Rather, my issue is with our civilization. Because any economic system that just lets someone blow nearly a quarter of a million dollars on a goddamn Charizard card is fundamentally flawed. Admittedly it is an extremely rare Charizard card, but not so rare as to justify the gross wealth inequity that plagues us.

Speaking of, Logic posted on Instagram about how when he was a kid he tried trading food stamps for Pokémon cards and how great it is that now, as an adult, he can enjoy this hobby. And that's super, but seriously two hundred and twenty grand? I mean, I don't want to tell him what to do with his vast fortune but uh, maybe buy some kids lunch? 

Huh...I guess I actually do want to tell him what to do with his vast fortune.

Are we seriously saying that there's
no middle ground between Karl Marx
and $220 million Charizard cards?

Now before you get all capitalism is the best system we have on me-no, not you you, obviously. I mean, if you're reading my blog we're probably more or less on the same page when it comes to this sort of thing. But is it? The best system? Look, there are absolutely way worse examples of extravagance than Logic's dumb Pokémon collecting, it's just that a lot of people sleep on the sidewalk outside where I work and it seems like maybe we're not doing it right, as a society, when the two ends of the spectrum are that far apart. 

I'm not saying that we should go and storm Jeff Bezos' house and redistribute the wealth or anything. All I'm suggesting is that the reason money exists, like, the reason the government prints it, is so that we don't have to trade goats and children for goods and services. It's not there so a few people can live in abject and appalling luxury while the rest of have to set up GoFundMe's every time we need surgery.

Although while we're on the subject, could we storm
Jeff Bezos' house and redistribute the wealth? 

I mean, what the actual?

"What are we supposed to do? Persuade
voters? I mean, have you read our platform?"

-The GOP

So you know how Republicans love to use the zero cases of voter fraud in America each year to justify naked election theft tactics like closing polling places in areas that tilt Democratic, purging voter rolls, passing restrictive voter ID laws designed to disenfranchise likely Democratic voters, and now literally and figuratively dismantling the Post Office's ability to process the mail? Well get this. Get what? You didn't click on the link? Oh, ok, I'll explain but seriously, seriously, brace yourself, because even for them this is...well in the annals of bald-faced hutzpah, this will go down as one of their hutzpah-iest.

"Just leave it with us.
It's fine. Totally fine."

-California's GOP

Unofficial ballot drop-off boxes, that is, ballot drop-off boxes not sanctioned by state election officials have been cropping up around California. Most of them were set up by the state's Republican Party but at least one in L.A. County was just put up in front of a church by its Pastor although it was emblazoned with a sign saying that it was "approved and bought by the GOP." According to Freedom's Way Baptist Church, we shouldn't worry though, because they don't have access to the box themselves, instead GOP officials will come around and collect the ballots so...yeah, nothing sketchy going on here.  

Um, past experience is how and 
why we question their integrity.

Obviously this is, you know, an incredibly illegal and unethical outright attack on American democracy so-Huh? What's that? Can't they see that? Well, these are Republicans were talking about so of course they claim this brazen malfeasance is totally legit and how dare we question their integrity? Now, there is a 2016 California law that allows something called ballot harvesting-that is, you can hand your ballot over to someone you trust to turn it in for you, and the party is claiming that this is what that is. 

Which it isn't. Of course it isn't, but here, check out the State GOP's super-defensive tweet about how above boards they're being with their pretend ballot boxes:

When you guys do it, everything. Everything is wrong with this.

Above: The Party of Lincoln

Cool, but a box marked "official ballot drop off" isn't a trusted person, it's, you know, a box-a trap really, and doesn't involve a person signing for it as required by law. And should an uninformed person-which is 100% the kind of voter the GOP has counted on for years-happen upon this box, they could easily think it's real. And that's why State election officials have demanded that the boxes be removed and the ballots collected turned over. But how many people used it already? And where are the ballots now? 

It is possible for voters to check the status of their ballots online, but that doesn't preclude tampering. And in an already confusing and chaotic election year, will everybody whose ballots were harvested know that they need to check? I guess we'll just have to trust the Republican Party? And I mean, if you can't trust the kind of people who would put up fake ballot boxes in the midst of the most divisive election in memory, who can you trust?

I'm going to go ahead and say that people interested in free and fair elections don't
write "Official Ballot Drop Off" on a filing cabinet and put it out on the street.

Give it a chance, it'll Mulgrow on you.*

*Sorry. Even for me that's...anyway, I'm jazzed about the news that Kate Mulgrew will be reprising her role as Captain Janeway. And yes, we're going to talk about Star Trek again. Bail out now if you want, but I mean, I did say jazzed, so what more could you want?

Pictured: this.

Above: a young Alanis Morissette
getting slimed is possibly the
80's-est thing to ever 80's.

Like I was saying, Captain Janeway is going to be on Star Trek: Prodigy, the new animated Star Trek series that's-yeah, no not Lower Decks, this is a completely different animated show. It's aimed at a younger audience because it's going to be on Nickelodeon which I don't think I've watched since You Can't do that on Television. Because I'm an old. But one of the perks of being an old is that you don't care what other people think, so yeah, this grown ass adult is going to watch the new Star Trek kids show.

Nothing against Scott Bakula as an actor,
but there may be an objective answer to
who the worst Star Trek Captain is...

But Janeway! Among Omega-level Star Trek fans such as myself, a surprising amount of time is spent contemplating which captain is the best captain and while there's no objective answer, Janeway is oft overlooked. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe it's because at the time, The Next Generation had just ended a seven year run and Voyager was going concurrently with both Deep Space Nine and the TNG films and maybe just people were a little Treked out back then. Of course, it's nothing in comparison to the glut were experiencing now.

I say that's a lot, but look up the Tommy
Westfall Universe theory sometime.

For those counting, Prodigy will probably be running alongside Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds along with Short Treks, that Michelle Yeoh Section 31 show and whatever movie or movies end up getting made. That's seven Star Trek-uh...things. Seven! For whatever reason, shared narrative universes are in in a way I guess they weren't in the 90's when people got fed up after just one or two spin-offs. On the one hand it's an embarrassment of riches if you're a fan, on the other, we could be headed for Trek fatigue.

Remarkably, the TNG episode with the 
boozy Irish stereotypes is only that
series' second most racist installment.

Anyway, Voyager is often regarded as the least fondly remembered series, and I don't think that's fair. The lost in space decades from home premise felt like a fresh take on the old formula. The stories were fun, and the characters were interesting, I mean, what's not to love? Well ok, the episode where Janeway and Paris go faster than warp 10, mutate into salamanders and then mate. But all of these shows had their share of clunkers. May I remind you of DS9's Profit and Lace or TNG's Up the Long Ladder? Voyager was easily the equal of its peers, so why it always gets the short shrift is anybody's-

-hang on, you don't suppose misogyny may have played a role in Voyager's reputation as the weak link of the franchise? I'm not an expert on gender studies and sci-fi, but if the inarguably superior Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (come at me), has taught us anything, it's that there is still a segment of any fandom that cries in their Misogyn-O's® whenever a woman is the lead in a genre historically dominated by male characters. 

"With nine essential vitamins and minerals, Misogynos® is a part of a completely
inequitable breakfast. You can taste the patriarchy in every bite!"™

What? Like you don't devote hours to
concocting elaborate fan theories about
tv shows you watch...oh...you don't?

And that sucks, because Voyager was great. And I think the love it's been getting recently speaks to that point. Star Trek: Picard has Seven of Nine as a recurring character and makes use of a ton of Borg lore from Voyager. Also, Rios' holograms are clearly an homage to the EMH. And I even have a crackpot theory that the (spoiler!) event mentioned in the Disco season 3 trailer that leaves the Federation in shambles in the distant future was caused by the omega molecules from The Omega Directive. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a diet rich in fatty acids, but trust me, everything links back to Voyager. 

Anyway, the takeaway here is that hers was an under-appreciated series and I'm jazzed to see Kate Mulgrew's Captain-actually Admiral now, Janeway return to a series even if it is in animated form. And I'm not saying you should work your way through Voyager if you haven't seen it, but what I am saying is that this is a pandemic and there's a decent chance that you've got nothing better to do in your down time, so...

Oh, and did I mention it's super topical?
Here's a gif of Janeway stabbing a macro virus.