It's the rich and powerful taking advantage any way they can - business as usual. And you can be sure that for any place that is of interest to them, and that has any kind of risk of extreme weather, there's a plan or a small army of specialists ready and waiting, and on occasion - when they think they can get away with it - they might help things along with some well placed matches, but that's a long way away from massive weather manipulation operations on a global scale.
It's a matter of scale: some shenanigans here and there, sure. Start a fire here, delay the warning there, buy the people in charge so the aftermath goes in their favor, etc. The problem is the people chanting "everywhere all the time with magic tech". That's just stupid, and it distracts from the real problem: rich assholes taking advantage of a real issue. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the theories originated with these people, the same way oil companies spent decades spreading doubt and bullshit through various fronts as a delaying tactic.
Lasers and spooky tech are more exciting than zoning laws, campaign contributions and endless bureaucracy. These fuckers thrive on the latter, because they know it's mind-numbingly boring for most people, same as finance and their bullshit language.
