Different Ways to Connect Two Dots

I’ve been meaning to write this one for a while, but the Thuckmeister has had me super busy lately.

Greg Patterson, the Espresso Pundit, in Step out of line the men come and take you away … speculated on how the investigation of Phil Mickelson for insider trading was connected to his whining about the taxes he had to pay on his enormous income.

Mickelson earns about $50 Million per year, and has a net worth approaching half a billion.

Patterson’s theory:

Here’s an interesting perspective on the Phil Mickelson investigation. It turns out that Carl Icahn and Billy Walters are Republican contributors. And then there’s this:

And in January 2013, Mickelson complained about high federal and state taxes, and suggested that he may need to move out of California because of high tax rates there. This was viewed as a public relations blunder, and the golfer later apologized. (For what? Beats me.) But he is nevertheless remembered by many as an outspoken critic of excessive taxation.

Got that? The “feds” are selectively targeting conservatives for insider trading, and they’re going after Mickelson because he whined about his (state) tax rate?

Tinfoil hat much, Greg?

Here’s my alternative way to connect these dots: If you’re raking in 50 mil a year and you’ve already stacked away so much wealth that you, your wife and your next five generations of descendants will not want for anything, it would require a mental illness for you to obsess about a few percentage points in your tax rate. And it would be that same mental illness that would cause you to cheat, by trading on inside information, to make profits you’ll never, ever need.