I think "realist" makes excellent points, especially the part where (s)he sheds light on the basic character of soldiers (good one!). Also, the "Chemtrails" theory is one the most inane I've ever seen. A high school-level understanding of Chemistry, Physics and Meteorology is all one needs to explain contrails completely; they are mysterious/ominous only to the scientifically challenged.

However...

I'm also convinced that CoIntelPros never remotely stopped happening, and that cities of all sizes everywhere have never stopped being subject to the sort of extraconstitutional police activities Kirsten describes. Whether or not that's what she actually experienced is a different question.

Nor do I believe this government is above performing experiments on its own communities without their consent. They HAVE done this; how many times we'll never know (see the superb book The Plutonium Files; www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385314027/103-9396065-8558241 ).

Also, even realist's theory as to what this is about ("it was just to buzz you and enjoy your paranoia") reflects a hostility within U.S. military culture toward the very civil society it's charged with "protecting," and this posture warrants attention, concern, and yes even paranoia. They're only on "your side" if you happen to be pro-blood'n'guts and pro-empire, like most of them.

One of the most preposterous things going on today is the alarm Americans are registering as to the malevolence of this government, AS IF THIS IS NEW. Stop listening to your grandmother from the Old Country, she's a sap. This government has NEVER lived up to its grandiose rhetoric, not even a little. Like all governments, it's always been an advancement society for extreme class privilege. If it pursued a novel strategy that included unusual liberalism, that's only because the club members understood the public was A) onto them and B) poised to slice their livers out...

That awareness has atrophied, however, and so we've allowed the checks and balances to become obsolete. The American ruling class has consequently acquired far too much power, and now seems to be undergoing a generational drift into genuine megalomania -- the same shit that happened in Europe over and over, beginning 2,000+ years ago. It's a shame U.S. historians are generally apologists for class power; otherwise our comprehension of history might not have degenerated to the degree that made this possible.