does anyone?

Question

who out there can tell me what slice through the smoke and mirrors means?

Answer 1

GET TO THE TRUTH AND THE REALITY OF THE MOMENT
GOD BLESS

Answer 2

Smoke and mirrors implies there's something being presented as truth or reality by someone deliberately trying to make it APPEAR to be truth or reality. Usually it's a single person (or single corporation, or single government) trying to fool a multitude of people through trickery of one sort or another.
Slicing through the smoke and mirrors means looking deeper, being investigative, challenging assumptions and basically proving that there is misdirection going on, and finding out what the TRUE situation is.

The 'smoke and mirrors' phrase is drawing an analogy to magicians' tricks of creating illusions by either distracting or fooling the audience into thinking one thing is happening while hiding what is actually going on to create the magical illusion.
So taking it further, it's used anytime there is similar skillful subterfuge happening. You slice through the smoke and mirrors when you discover a great looking used car actually has its odometer rolled back and check its history to find out it was once a writeoff, but damages were carefully concealed. Or authorities sliced through Bre-X's smoke and mirrors when they discovered gold samples were planted at the mining site to make it appear like it would be an incredibly profitable investment.

Answer 3

The smoke and mirrors is a reference to stage conjuring tricks. As an expression, cutting through them refers to getting to the truth of the matter, despite other people's efforts to hide it. Not surprisingly, It is generally used here in the UK when discussing politics!