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Update to Too many grocery bags (again): The problem grows (10 July 2026).

I wonder how silly my photographs will get before corporate responds.

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A project I’m mulling over has to do with asking people about democratic values.

I’m not sure what exactly it would be, but I like the idea of calling attention to contrasting choices.

Like:

Would you rather a government chose transparency or secrecy in its operations?

Would you rather a government listened to experts and those with lived experience or to corporate interests?

Would you rather a government supported human rights or authoritarianism?

Would you rather a government funded data centres or knowledge and service workers?

Would you rather a government built pipelines or solar panels?

Would you rather a government invested in human well-being or in weaponry?

Stuff like that. Maybe with lots of footnotes to the actual choices our governments are making.

Voting once every few years (in a first-past-the-post system that benefits two largely interchangeable corporate parties) is obviously insufficient in terms of democratic principles.

This idea might connect to the plan of lobbying the Senate to stop endorsing what the House of Commons is doing (17 June 2026). Yeah, sure, the institutions of Parliament have a long history of declining to become involved in what’s happening in “the other place,” a euphemistic tradition of “respect.” But at a certain point, rubber-stamping becomes complicity in an abuse of process. Respect for democratic principles, my argument goes, requires other than a politely blind eye.

(I’m aware that the PM is appointing explicitly partisan people to the Senate, for the purpose of steamrolling opposition there too. Might as well go out screaming about democratic principles.)