Comcast Plans to Drop Time Warner Cable Deal

Not necessarily. On average, the last 10 justices to retire have done so around age 80, and that's with Stevens (who retired at 90) pushing the average up. Assuming (a) that this trend holds, and (b) that next President serves two terms, four of the nine justices may be replaced in that time. After all, come 2016 Breyer will be 77, Kennedy will be 79, Scalia will be 80, and Ginsburg will be 83.

Currently, the Court is 4-4-1, with Kennedy being the swing vote, though in recent years he's sided with his Conservative colleagues more frequently.

If a Republican president wins, it's possible that Breyer (who leans left) will outlast him. But it's less likely that Ginsburg will. And it's almost certain that Kennedy and Scalia would retire. With the swing and at least one left leaning vote flipping Conservative, the court would be 6-3 Conservative, if not 7-2, and likely to stay that way for another decade. But if the Democrats take the White House and Breyer and Gisnburg retire before 2024 (likely in both cases), then both Kennedy and Scalia will also need to hold out until 2024 just to preserve the 4-4-1 status quo. It's an unlikely prospect, given that they'd be 87 and 88 respectively.

If Scalia goes first, the Court would become 5-3-1 Liberal, with the importance of the swing dramatically reduced. If Kennedy goes first, taking the swing vote with him, the Court would become 5-4 Liberal, thus negating Scalia's power should he decide to linger, thereby increasing the chances that he'll retire as well. With both gone the Court would be 6-3 Liberal for a generation.

For what it's worth, Liberal voters are intensely aware of these numbers. They'll push Hillary as far to the left as they can during the primary phase of the campaign, but given the prospect of a clear and long-term advantage in the Supreme Court - and a bone-deep fear of what Conservatives would do with the same advantage - you can be absolutely sure that they'll be unified and motivated in the general election. Indeed, given how few major issues unite all Democrats, there's a good chance that reshaping the Supreme Court will become a central issue in the general election, since it's pretty much the only thing that everybody in the party can get behind without reservation.

Of course, Conservatives are looking at the same math, and they'll be just as unified and motivated for the same reason. However, the GOP is also burdened by a general lack of popularity (they trail both Democrats and Independents in terms or registered voters), structural disadvantages in the Electoral College, and the fact that voter turnout in Presidential years favors Democrats.

There were precisely zero content providers (outside NBC) who were looking forward to dealing with a monopsony that also owned a direct competitor.

OpenSecrets has been sweeping that disclaimer more and more under the rug, to the point where now I'd accuse them of lying.

Meanwhile, the town's also considering municipal fiber now that the whole net neutrality stuff happened (and having watched another nearby town implement its own locally-grown fiber).