Btw Mr. Smith had a blog and continued blogging until the day before taking his life. Some of his blog entries touch upon the subject matter of this thread. He seemed to have a strong interest in contributing to the discussion and displayed that both in his blog and in reaching out to the WSJ. That last part has always been a striking detail to me. The WSJ did not find Smith. Smith reached out to one of their reporters (10 days before his death).
https://web.archive.org/web/20170702...m/#nationstate
I commend his blog post on November 21, 2016 for close reading, especially in light of what we have learned since.