Pretty much, oh 99 percent, of the country knows that the pay ratio of corporate CEO’s to their workers is obscene.

But to the CEO’s the real obscenity is that people know just how obscene.

Nothing seems to get U.S. corporations’ dander up like a threat to the pay and perks of their chief executives.

That’s one explanation for corporate America’s superheated, turbocharged, over-the-top reaction to the CEO pay ratio rule recently proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The rule requires most large public companies to calculate the ratio of the pay of their chief executive officer to the median pay of all their employees. Its general terms were mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, which imposed numerous regulatory changes on corporate and banking behavior in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown.

…It’s not hard to see why. Unlike most SEC regulations, the CEO rule isn’t really designed to provide information for investors. Rather, it’s designed to provide information for the larger community — for society, if you will. Its aim is to provide ammunition for the argument that the share of corporate profits going to top management, and by extension corporate shareholders, has gotten out of control.

In other words, a bunch of folks who feel no shame, want to avoid that possibility in perpetuity.

Yes – I’ve Seen All Good People

Yes was finally nominated for the Rock Hall of Fame, by a Bipartisan effort no less…

Voices For Yes is billed as “the only known bipartisan effort in Washington DC” – and while that’s not entirely true, it’s still unusual for conservatives and liberals to work together in a common cause.

Republican media operative John Brabender, who’s attended more than 40 Yes shows, tells The Atlantic: “I’ve been a Yes fan for decades.

“The genesis – that’s a pun – was two things. One, wouldn’t it be fun to work for once on a campaign where you were really passionate about the candidate and knew it was the right thing to do?

“And two, wouldn’t it be fun if you brought togethers Democrats and Republicans in an all-star team to go out and do it?”

Brabender’s opposite number is Tad Devine, a Democrat presidential campaign adviser. He says: “I think Yes are great. Some of the people involved are super-fans – they know every song and every album.”

Voices For Yes signed up 2000 supporters on the day it launched, with big names including ex-governor Mike Huckabee, radio host Michael Smerconish and former NBC News boss Steve Capus.

And although the campaign is strictly non-political, Brabender believes it could bear fruit for the future of US democracy. “It’s something we can come together on,” he says. “Maybe the first step to ending gridlock in Washington turns out to be music.”

You can cast your votes (up to 5) here…!

What’s on your mind tonite…?

Even as we slide into fall and winter here in my part of the Northern Hemisphere, I’m feeling more hopeful and springy than I have in quite some time. I think that the massive overreaching of Ted Cruz, Jim DeMint and the rest of the Dominionist Tea Party crowd has soured most Americans on austerity, and I can feel the tide turning, just as America’s changing demographics outpace the worst the gerrymanderers can do. Even Dick Durbin, the Obama White House’s go-to guy for floating potential betrayals, is trying to be more subtle about it nowadays — hence his deciding to avoid the other channels and go onto FOX News, a channel shunned by most Democratic and lefty TV watchers, to suggest a willingness to embrace Social Security “reform” and to pit the soon-to-retire Boomers against their own kids and grandkids. (The only “reforms” Social Security might possibly require, besides keeping the hedge fund CEOs away from it, are as follows: 1. Remove the cap, and 2. Subject *all* income to FICA. Doing this keeps Social Security safe forever. But I digress.)

Go ahead, Ted Cruz, threaten another shutdown — keep reminding everyone that a) you started this and b) you want to do it again. I can’t wait to see Bernie Sanders slap you down while Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid both smile from the sidelines. Go ahead, Dick Durbin, float another granny-starving trial balloon — we’ll shoot it down even though you thought you could hide from us by appearing on FOX News Sunday.

So what’s on your minds tonight?