The Home Front:
Why There’s a Watering Can in My Shower
Last year, a friend told me her young daughter was putting a bucket in the shower to save the water normally wasted during the time it took to heat up. I loved the idea. By dropping my showerhead into a watering can before every shower, I capture four liters of clean water that can be used for watering plants, flushing toilets, or household cleaning. By 2025 water shortages may affect up to two thirds of the world’s population, experts predict. Conserving shower and bath water can make a difference. And that’s why there’s a watering can in my shower.
—Karen McCann


STOP, LOOK, LISTEN!
Ad Blitz
I'm visiting in the US—and just watched some early-evening TV at my mother’s house. During just half an episode of Wheel of Fortune I saw six ads for Mike Bloomberg. Julia Ceaven of Slate theorizes that this may be some sort of bizzare social experiment to test the maximum threshold of political advertising the public can tolerate.
I noted the sheer number of ads, but I didn't pay much attention to the content—until Mom commented on one. “Did you see that? I can’t believe Obama has endorsed Bloomberg!” He hasn’t, of course, but a combination of selective context and editing certainly gives that misleading impression. It is horrifying.
—Kathy Sherretts

We gather together:
How Stuff Works: How do caucuses work?
Five states conduct caucuses to select their presidential candidates: Iowa, Nevada, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Kentucky. (Minnesota still does, sort of.)

Confidentially:
Slate/What Next: How ICE Is Weaponizing Therapy (Podcast, 26 min)
Unaccompanied minors at the border receive weekly therapy while in ICE custody. Now, officials are using therapists’ notes as evidence against these young migrants in court.

Sore subject:
Pew Research Center: Almost half of Americans have stopped talking politics with someone by Mark Jurkowitz and Amy Mitchell
60% of liberal Democrats say they have stopped talking politics with someone because of something they said. The next likeliest to drop the subject are conservative Republicans, at 45%.

Downhill from there:
Al Franken Podcast: How We Got Here. Norm Ornstein on the Erosion of Norms from Gingrich to McConnell to Trump (Podcast, 52 min)
Back in the 90s, Newt Gingrich instructed Republican lawmakers to demonize Democrats as “sick, corrupt, traitors.” (In case you missed the newer, low-profile Al Franken, see this profile from last July's New Yorker. Franken discusses it on Conan, here.)


Primaries are Starting!
Are You Registered? Are You Sure?

1. Go to Vote from Abroad (votefromabroad.org).
2. Click START to fill out the form (known as FPCA: Federal Post Card Application) to register to vote (best done annually) and request your ballot, which will arrive by email.
3. Check the State Voting Guide to review your state's deadlines and requirements.
4. Vote! Democracy depends on each one of us speaking up for what we believe in!

Learn More About Candidates and Issues! 

• Progressive Action, Global Exchange (PAGE) 
• Americans of Conscience Checklist
• ClimateRecovery.org​

The old-fashioned kind of recycling—donating and reselling of secondhand clothes—is basically a myth, since the market is glutted. (Jared T. Miller for Newsweek)

The Home Front:
Why Donating Clothes Isn’t the Solution
Americans discard 80 pounds of clothing per person per year. Today, there’s such a glut of cheap clothing around the world that 84% of all unwanted garments end up in a landfill — yes, including most of those we donate to charity and many new items that have been returned unworn. 
H&M and others are installing clothing take-back bins, so we can feel virtuous about dropping off stuff we don’t want before buying more. But only 0.1% of those clothes are recycled into new textile fiber. Synthetics, and those natural fibers which have been bleached, dyed, printed on, or scoured in chemical baths, are impossible to recycle. They’re either incinerated, releasing toxins into the air, or sent to the landfill, where some take centuries to biodegrade.
Buying less is the best solution, which is why you’ve all seen me in the same handful of sweaters this winter. Shopping in vintage stores helps. And if you are buying new, there’s an app called Good On You that rates the sustainability and ethics of popular brands.
—Karen McCann
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STOP, LOOK, LISTEN!
The Plastocene Era

• Reduce, Reuse, Refuse. I'm finding that it takes an effort to bring home less single-use plastic. The recommendations below are just of few of the things I have been reading on the subject of plastics.
• Impeachment. It’s all over but the acquittal… I don’t need to link to a lineup of opinion pieces, each more pained and indignant than the last. You’ve read more than your share already. But keep in mind a couple of things: This process has been a success, as it brought to light not only illegal actions by the President, but also the moral failure of the Republican senators who are giving him cover. It's not just Trump who needs to be removed by the voters this November—the whole lot of unbound-by-term-limits weasels have to go.
• Black History Month. A little something to celebrate.

—Kathy Sherretts

Three articles on living with plastic:

Politico: Plastic bags have lobbyists. They're winning. by Samantha Maldonado, Bruce Ritchie and Debra Kahn
​Only eight states ban single-use plastic bags; nearly twice as many have laws protecting them. From the UN Environment Programme: History of the plastic shopping bag.

Yale Environment 360: The Plastics Pipeline: A Surge of New Production Is on the Way by Beth Gardiner
With customers' general shift away from fossil fuels, oil and gas companies are looking for another use for their petroleum and byproducts. Plastics are increasingly seen as a growth area.

Grist: What’s the most ethical way to store leftovers? by Eve Andrews
Don’t overthink it. Use what you have, and don’t throw anything away before you really have to.
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