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Caseythoughts I really do wish I could find a way to veer from the politics and potential impeachment story, but intriguing stories and thoughts keep popping up like a game of political whack-a-mole. Bear with me on this one as I try another 'connection' of totally disconnected (at first blush) news stories.

You've heard a lot about the technology called facial recognition, and it is being touted as (pick one): a) another version of 1984, b) another denigration of our right to privacy (OK, Boomer) or c) a great leap forward for untrammeled artificial intelligence.

Well, prepare yourself for what is being touted as 'emotion recognition'. Not wires in your brain, nor sensors on your body parts. No, this is apparently a way to detect your state of mind from your facial expressions. Yes, we humans do it all the time (some of us better than others, perhaps lovers best...) but this is something that is the newest 'buzz' at tech expos, specifically an exposition in Shenzhen, China's 'tech ground zero'.

The technology, according to Sue-Lin Wong and Qianer Liu of the Financial Times, is being tried as a 'crime prevention' or, rather, crime prediction, in airports and subway stations in communist China, and you have to wonder if it has made its way to Hong Kong, yet. It has apparently already been installed in XinJiang, the oppressed Muslim minority area in northwest Chine.

According to a Chinese policing expert: "...using video footage, emotion recognition technology can rapidly identify criminal suspects by analyzing their mental state...to prevent illegal acts..."

Now, putting the criminal issue aside (would anyone like to revisit Minority Report?), the technology is also being used at customs points, noting facial expressions of aggressiveness, nervousness and stress levels. Reports are that Amazon, Microsoft and Google (the Three Musketeers of our brave new world) are also experimenting and developing emotion recognition, but unpublished comments indicate that it's not very reliable. However there are some who report it could become reliable enough with three to five years of additional experimentation. Smile, you're on Candid Camera.

Now, what has this to do with impeachment and potential Senate trial of the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Fox News, with no prescience noticeable, predicts that a televised Senate trial would draw viewers on a par only seen with Super Bowl telecasts.

Interestingly, there would probably be quite a floor fight about how many cameras, and where they would be allowed to point. Senate decorum will be extremely limited, but one camera trained on the podium wouldn't be sufficient, and I'm trying to remember how the Clinton trial worked, and how many cameras were allowed, with no 'panning' permitted.

But, you can bet that these cameras won't be focused on the Senators in their seats, nor the peanut gallery of people who will be lining up like a 'Let's Make A Deal' audience to get front row seats. The Sergeants-at-arms and Chief Justice Roberts will have their hands full, no doubt, trying to maintain a proper adherence to rules and prohibition of demonstrations, no doubt. Andrew Johnson's Senate trial was standing room only in the Senate gallery in 1868.

But, emotion recognition would be a real twist if secretly used with Senate cameras, n'est pas? The major media talking heads would have a field day interpreting facial emotion (and their attendant psychologists) on the Senators who manage to stay awake during this prime example of the Constitution process run amuck.

And, just to keep it interesting, knowing that this is all a fantasy that would never happen, but we have to keep a straight face, or maybe a quiet laugh, in all of this. So here are a few Senators that would be very interesting to watch with emotional recognition technology as they follow the proceedings.

All four of these Senators are facing re-election in 'toss-up' states where Trump is apparently no hero, with polls split fairly evenly on Trump's approval ratings (for what they may be worth). They are: Senator Martha McSally of Arizona, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tullis of North Carolina.

These four Senate Republicans are facing the toughest re-election battles of any in the Senate in 2020. Cook Political Report (I've no idea of its political slant, if any) rates the Arizona, Colorado and Maine races as 'toss-ups' and North Carolina as 'leaning' Republican. Amazing to think of Arizona and Maine as 'toss-ups', but these are states where the Trump approval rating is suffering, even underwater, and a Senate trial as 2020 gets rolling would be a bellwether for these senators and their re-election hopes. No matter how these four vote, they will be upsetting a large contingent of voters (including presumably moderates and undecideds) and pro- or anti- is all that matters to many voters, regardless of the charges, or the veracity of said charges. These senators, if they have even mediocre Democratic opponents, could be in real trouble no matter the outcome, for their vote (like Susan Collins' Cavanaugh vote) will be scrutinized above all else, and it would be fascinating to be able (imagine) 'reading their emotions' while testimony is gathered, on a Senate/pool camera.

It's going to take a two-thirds vote, of course, and with the current make-up of the Senate, twenty Republican Senators would have to 'turn' on the President. Highly unlikely, you say? Well, just for grins throw in Ben Sasse of Nebraska who is definitely not a fan of the current White House resident, Mitt Romney (Holy election, Batman, would Romney run again if Trump was convicted?), Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio who despises Trump, and let's just throw in Mitch McConnell who is running for re-election, but is probably a shoo-in regardless of outcome. So we would think.

But it would be interesting to watch these canaries in the Senate coal mine. Since we don't have emotion recognition yet, we still have an opportunity to watch and listen to these six senators with a little help from the internet. It will take a little extra work on our part in our reading, research and viewing. But, research on current pronouncements and campaigning is a lot easier these days. And what these six say to their constituents both before and after the trial will be significant and newsworthy, as they work toward an election which will be heavily influenced by the trial and subsequent vote. Checking in on lesser known personages in re-election mode, and getting away from talking heads, attorneys and spin doctors can take you away from the drivel the media will call 'impeachment news'. I plan on keeping my eye and ear on the above named politicians and their 2020 campaigns in those 'swing/toss-up' states as this political tsunami heads to shore. I am pretty sure the 'fat lady hasn't sung yet'.
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