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That's a fascinating strategic analysis about Shapiro, but your three prongs miss the one he actually took: he pretended neutrality, caused problems, and then lied about what the problems were. If he had been genuinely neutral or refused to participate entirely, he still could have gotten the loving tongue-bath from TNR and the leftists. He just would have had to admit what he did, and show responsibility.
He didn't. That means something, especially if he's pretending to be the adult in the room.
I'm less sure on the liner material. That's a plausible model, but it's dependent on the application here being 'normal', and there's a lot of ways it just isn't because of scale. The metal plates in particular are a spot that the normal analysis wouldn't cover because they didn't need to exist, and would survive normal stresses, but would vulnerable to sabotage. Polyurea really isn't that scratch- or cut- resistant on its own, and the reason things like bubbling matter so much is because it does propagate from weak points, especially while the underlying primer is still curing.
But even if vandalism is possible as a major cause for the liner problems, it's compatible with also having poor application, and either option doesn't explain the algae blooms.
So... why is it so important to insist something with photographic evidence is not just implausible as a sole cause, but completely without evidence? Literally the next day someone got indicted for it!
Dumping fertilizer in the pool could explain the algae blooms, and fertilizer could be used to burn the grass over on the nearby lawn.
It's all gaslighting; the idea is to make you think it's crazy to think that someone would vandalize the National Mall just to make Trump look bad.
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