January News Update (#5908)

* January News Update

* Missed a paragraph from one of the articles.

* typos/corrections

code/modules/lore_codex/news_data/main.dm

@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@
 	region. Each is labeled by date of publication and title. This list is self-updating, and from time to time the publisher will push new \
 	articles. You are encouraged to check back frequently."
 	children = list(
+		/datum/lore/codex/page/article33,
+		/datum/lore/codex/page/article32,
+		/datum/lore/codex/page/bjornretirement,
+		/datum/lore/codex/category/article31,
+		/datum/lore/codex/page/article30,
 		/datum/lore/codex/page/article29,
 		/datum/lore/codex/page/article28,
 		/datum/lore/codex/category/article27,
@@ -339,4 +344,60 @@
 	<br><br>\
 	Arielsson's governorship saw increased funding towards Sif's vererable ground-based transportation networks to the benefit of some of New Rekjavik's more remote neighbors, though opponents have criticised subsidies towards artificially heated fungal farms, arguing that the faciliies \"benefit a small minority of Skrellian residents to the detriment of already fragile local ecosystems.\"\
 	<br><br>\
-	The Sivian Shadow Coalition has yet to announce who is to take Arielsson's place on this year's ballot."
+	The Sivian Shadow Coalition has yet to announce who is to take Arielsson's place on this year's ballot."
+
+/datum/lore/codex/category/article31
+	name = "01/13/63 - Bjorn Arielsson Issues 'Farewell Address'"
+	data = "Veteran politician Bjorn Arielsson made an impromptu address from his Kalmar cabin, beseeching political unity in the face of the Almach Seccession and offering his own perspective on the conflict.  'It's republicanism versus autocracy,' he said, 'and we're not the autocracy.'\
+	<br><br>\
+	The speech has been met with approval from many young synthetics and organics alike,  with many referring to Arielsson as 'Old Man Bjorn' on social media immediately after its conclusions. Others responded less positively, with Arielsson's caustic remarks about political rival and Icarus Front Secretary-General Mackenzie West providing ample room for criticism. 'Secretary-General West... might wax poetic about how the Association is a 'betrayal of our own humanity', or some... or some crock of shit like that' says Arielsson in the first of three specific insults against the SecGen.\
+	<br><br>\
+	Others have criticized the speech's seemingly communist tone, with Arielsson expressing approval for the socialist Free Relan Federation and the anarchist Casini's Reach despite opposing their secessionist ideals. Still others claim that the speech offered 'nothing but empty feelings' and that it lacked specific, actionable resolutions on the growing secessionist movement in VirGov. Some have even framed the Address as a form of political maneuvering by the venerable politician, claiming that he voiced unpopular sentiments specifically to hamper the Shadow Coalition's re-election bid after well-publicized disagreements with SC party bosses.\
+	<br><br>\
+	The actions of Arielsson and Vir's proximity to the border have lead to increased focus on the upcoming Gubernatorial election on a nationwide level, with the Icarus Front alone projected to spend upwards of a billion thalers on publicity. Minor party candidates like the former MLM member Luisa Hannirsdottir and the Mercurial Phaedrus already have strong support in the polls, promising a fierce election that could ultimately tip power in the system in any direction.\
+	<br><br>\
+	A full excerpt is available below."
+	children = list(
+		/datum/lore/codex/page/bjornretirement
+		)
+
+/datum/lore/codex/page/bjornretirement
+	name = "Bjorn Arielsson Farewell Address"
+	data = "This is, as you know, my last term in office. After this, I mean to retire-- really retire, I have a cabin in the mountains waiting for me along with a thick stack of old Bowler novels. Because this is my last term, I have the chance to do something pretty rare for a politician. I get to speak my mind.\
+	<br><br>\
+	I hear talk from some people-- mostly young people, people who have lived their whole adult life with me in the capital-- I hear them talking about seccession. Now, let's make it clear; I'm not going to belittle you, the way some of my colleagues would. Complaining about the government, especially one as big and as old as the Confederacy, is our gods-given right. It's never going to be perfect, and it's not half of what it could be. I have nothing against talking about it, I have nothing against turning that talk into action and actually seceding, with just cause. I've worked closely with Representative Hannirsdottir for ten years now, and while we don't agree on the issue of secession it's certainly never stopped us from cooperating.\
+	<br><br>\
+	But, uh, as you can probably guess, they're not talking about the old kind of seccession. They're not thinking we'll stop paying Solar taxes and strike it out alone, the way some people did during the Age of Seccession. They want to join the Association. Now, if I were Secretary-General West, I might wax poetic about how the Association is a 'betrayal of our own humanity', or some... or some crock of shit like that, if you'll pardon my language. We're not all humans here. We're Tajaran and Unathi and Skrell and Positronics and even a few Teshari. And while that 'Valentines Ultimatum' might win West a lot of points with their lackies, and with the kind of maintenance-dome troglodyte who thinks the First Accord was a mistake, it's done more for the Association's recruitment than their entire propaganda budget. It's become expedient for leaders on both sides to treat this like a fight between the Core and the Rim, or between humans and positronics, or between tradition and progressivism, but it's not any of these. It's the oldest fight in the book. It's republicanism versus autocracy, and we're not the autocracy.\
+	<br><br>\
+	Angessa's Pearl is a theocratic autocracy led by Angessa Martei, who owns all property on the planet down to her people's bland white jumpsuits and the gray slop they eat. This isn't propaganda. This is objective fact, and something Martei is open about. Her seccession is a means for her to get more and more naked power over her slaves, and to grow more and more of them, until she's the immortal center of an industrial empire. The people of the Pearl didn't make the choice to join the Association. The people that are building her fleet and dying for her cause had no say in the matter. The injustice, the oppression here isn't that their rights to 'self-improvement' or 'self-expression' or 'freedom of thought' were trod on-- the injustice is that SolGov, that we allowed these abuses to persist for as long as they did. The injustice is that there are still so few laws in place to prevent things like this from happening in new colonies. The injustice is that, on seeing Martei's schemes actualized, we didn't take a cold, hard look at just how that was allowed to happen.\
+	<br><br>\
+	I love SolGov. It's because of this love that I'm so furious at what we have allowed to happen to our people. The state of the Bowl is disgraceful. Nobody who looks to us for protection, who pays us taxes and levies, who is a member of our community, should live in fear of raider attacks. What we did to the positronics, the history we let ourselves repeat out of fear and greed, can never be forgiven, can never be repaired until Vir burns dark in our sky. The pogroms-- yes, the pogroms-- against the Unathi, against refugees fleeing their own religious autocracy, are a disgrace to everything we stand for. But of all the nations in the galaxy, with perhaps the exception of Casini's Reach, we are the only one founded for the good of the ruled, rather than the rulers. We are the only real commonwealth in known space. And that's why we need to strive for better. We are a burning beacon of liberty in a galaxy where nigh eighty percent of the population has no voice in the government. Every ounce of power we cede to the party bosses, or the corporations, or tinpot dictators like Angessa Martei, is a dimming, a flickering of that torch. \
+	<br><br>\
+	And this brings us back to the Association, and to those who sympathize with it. I do, too. I spent my entire career on sapient rights lobbying, on supporting the anti-malfesance efforts of my colleagues. For a disaffected positronic, for any friend to the positronic people, for those who have had their lives taken by corporations-- the Association seems like a miracle. And maybe, for those Mercurials, the ideas it's founded upon shine even brighter than our democracy. But I look at the Association, really look, and I see Angessa Martei lying in the center, spinning a great big web. I see Naomi Harper, lying through her teeth better than Mackenzie West ever could. Two of the biggest population bases in the Association, the two nations that started the whole Gray Hour, are autocracies. Once again, the ferver of the revolution is subsumed by the oligarchs who want to stay in power. I doubt, to the poor laborer on the Pearl, the word 'Mecurialism' means much. I doubt that once the shock of the seccession wears off, that the young Promethean soldier will find themselves in a better place in Harper's junta than they will here in Vir.\ I doubt that in ten years' time the miners, pioneers, and traders who seized their means of production will find the Association Militia a kinder master than Xion, Nanotrasen, or Major Bill's. \
+	<br><br>\
+	This is far from a blanket condemnation of every government in the Association. President Fisher of the FRF-- I consider her a friend. When she gave her speech this March about strengthening and guiding the Almachi Revolution, I thought long and hard about whether we might do the same. I certainly commend the effort. But the structure of the Association was penned by the same autocrats that, to do her words justice, Fisher will have to overthrow. There's no High Court, no checks or balances. The Association is an alliance penned as though deliberately ignoring two thousand years of political science. By striving to counter-balance these autocrats, Fisher plays into their hands. She commits her own fleet, weakens her own defenses against enemies closer to home, in the service of Martei's ambitions. \
+	<br><br>\
+	I don't see this whole affair as a chance to spread the galactic anti-corporate revolution the way President Fisher does, of course. I make no secret of my stance on Trans-Stellars, but I also know that we're better off with Sol than without. The 'Silent Collapse' was two hundred years ago, but we still bear the scars from it. When the Scandinavian Union pulled out support for the Sivian colonization project, SolGov saved us. I do mean saved us, sure as if they'd fished us out of a life pod. There were no factories, no steel, no concrete on Sif until the Engineering Corps built Radiance and New Reykjavik. Corporations and regional governments cowered from the Karan pirates, until the Marines chased them out. Whether Sivian or Karan, you owe the roof over your head to the Sol Confederate Government. With that great debt in mind, how dare we turn our backs on the Bowl, or Abel's Rest, or Nyx, when they need us! How dare we let oligarchs prey on the weak! How dare we choose not to act when we have, by virtue of our votes in the Assembly and our voice within the halls of public debate, the means to share our peace and prosperity with the rest of our people!\
+	<br><br>\
+	This is what I mean by SolGov being the only true republic, the only state founded for the common good. The 'human spirit' West croons on about isn't our industriousness, or our skill at arms. If humanity-- if this Terran culture is commendable for anything, it is that we assist our fellows. We take in Casteless Skrell, Unbound Unathi, republican Tajaran. We pass around the hat when someone's house burns down. We help our friends, our neighbors, and even strangers. The fact that Martei and Harper are perverting this impulse, padding their juntas with the air of legitimacy to inspire honest people to ride to their defense, is the reason their state is unconscionable, the reason it was was born flawed, the reason we cannot suffer it to continue, much less help it on its way.\
+	<br><br>\
+	Now, I'm sure you've noticed by now, that I haven't said much more than three words about technoprogressivism, or transtech, or whatever the word du jour is. Frankly, that's on purpose. 'Transtech' has never once been about technology. The Icarus Front-- the old one, that united us and took us to the stars, not the new one we spend forty hours a week arguing with about healthcare-- The Icarus Front was a popular revolution, you know. Hel, they were Marxists. It was a world where the kind of lack of accountability, the entrenched oligarchy and geographical class divide that we're dealing with now was spiraling out of control. In the old United States, the rich and powerful got the technology to grow loyal subjects in tubes, to make drone intelligences smarter in some ways than a human could ever be, to-- well, to do what Angessa Martei's done, only with no SolGov to stop her. Meanwhile, the 'little people' in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and other 'forgotten' parts of the world were left behind, hopelessly. I don't mean to downplay the importance of the Gray Tide, but if you look at historical accounts from that era, the thing that really united the Front was the knowledge that, if they didn't act immediately, they'd be seen as 'externalities' by immortal superintelligent businesspeople and politicians. The take-away from the Gray Tide should never have been that 'nanotechnology is dangerous'-- it should have been 'nobody should be able to destroy an entire city without facing consequences.'\
+	<br><br>\
+	That was more of a history lesson than I had meant, but it's important to look at these sorts of things in context. I know transtech and the Five Points have been used as an excuse for pejudice against Skrell, Mercurials, positronics, the FTU, communism, the disabled, and most recently Prometheans. But all the Five Points are supposed to mean - what they would say if the people who had written them were alive today, is that everyone deserves an equal playing field. When the ruling class is smarter, stronger, and longer lived than the classes they rule over-- well, I could wax poetic again, or I could just point you towards the Hegemony and their 'clients'. The Hegemony is bad enough. Let's not give Angessa Martei a chance to outdo them."
+
+/datum/lore/codex/page/article32
+	name = "01/25/63 - Moravec Nephew Announces Vir Governor Candidacy"
+	data = "The Sol Economic Organization has announced that Calvert Moravec, nephew of NanoTrasen CEO Albary Moravec will be running under their ticket in the upcoming Vir gubernatorial elections. Calvert has stated that he will run on a pro-business platform, and has chosen Vir to do so due to the 'Unique beauty and economic prospects of an interstellar crossroads such as Vir'.\
+	<br><br>\
+	Despite being a lifelong resident of Alpha Centauri, Moravec was recently approved for Vir citizenship, making him eligible for local candidacy and has reportedly moved into a luxurious New Reykjavik penthouse. Perhaps best known for his soaring stock market investment success over the previous few years, Calvert's first foray into politics is not wholly unexpected as the Moravec family has long leveraged their wealth in international affairs, though successful election would mark their first sitting member of the Colonial Assembly. Fellow SEO candidate Councillor Hal Wekstrom has expressed his full support for Moravec.\
+	<br><br>\
+	Three candidates will be elected as representatives to the Colonial Assembly later this year, with the most popular also attaining the position of system governor."
+
+/datum/lore/codex/page/article33
+	name = "01/27/63 - Vani Jee Orbital Tour Cut Short"
+	data = "Icarus Front Representative Candidate Vani Jee has delayed the remainder of her campaign tour of orbital colonies and outposts around the Vir system after an alleged altercation with NanoTrasen security.\
+	Candidate Jee had been visiting the NLS Southern Cross, a NanoTrasen station in Sif orbit to receive a corporate tour and meet with voters, when her concluding question and answer session was interrupted by hecklers, leading to the event being cut short. Jee alleges that footage of the event was seized by NanoTrasen corporate security and has accused the trans-stellar corporation of the intentional intimidation of Icarus Front and Shadow Coalition candidates in what she describes as 'a clear display of corruption in favour of company-favourite Calvert Moravec', though she has praised the individual employees of the Cross for their hospitality and thought-provoking questions.\
+	<br><br>\
+	Vani Jee is running on a platform of free access to education, Sivian self-determination, and isolationist foreign policy. She has refused to make any strong statements regarding hot-button issues such as the Five Points.\
+	<br><br>\
+	She intends to resume her scheduled tour after a three day break."