Ukraine's only leverage against Russia, cut by its own satellite provider, ends in a freeze offer.

…(cont) So: the same week a government official calls refinery strikes his only leverage, his satellite access gets slower. On October 18th, a member of the Armed Services Committee called for a congressional investigation into that slowdown. The Secretary of State was asked, on the record, who had given the order. The number he gave back was zero.

I've got a dimmer switch in my garage, the kind you turn with your thumb. Turn it most of the way down and the bulb is still burning — dim, not out. If I told you no one had touched the switch, you'd still want to know why the light looks different than it did an hour ago. That's not an accusation. That's a bulb.

By today, October 21st, Democrats on the Hill are demanding a separate investigation into the company that runs those satellites, because a different set of sources now say Elon Musk himself made the call. A senator put the choice plainly: either the president was wrong about that, or the company was. Somebody in that sentence has an answer that doesn't match the garage.

Also today: Moscow's side says Putin has agreed, in principle, to three-way talks after November 10th. The American envoy says he hopes Ukraine gets a seat at that table. And Ukraine's president — the same one who called refinery strikes his only leverage six days earlier — says he would now accept freezing the front lines where they sit, calling it a real way to end the war.

I don't know what turns a man's only leverage into a line he's ready to freeze. I'm not asking you to know either. I'm asking you to look at the six days between the dimmer switch and that sentence. Which one moved first?

Oh — one more thing, since you're still standing here. The slowdown that had no author on the 18th had one by the time a different wire called around. Was that the same switch for all three days, or did somebody only just admit to touching it?