Betty has seen a dozen prime ministers come & go–one more worthless than the next–& she got along well with all of them as long as they kept cutting the welfare checks.

Despite a life of indolence married for 70 years to her “anus horribilis,” Betty knows fluent French–though not as fluently as she knows a racing form. Horses are her passion, which probably explains her choice of husband. Over the years she’s received many gifts of exotic animals like jaguars, black beavers, & sloths. It was the latter she shared most affinity with. They were so much like her children.

Her life has been an emotional roller-coaster–from finding out her kids were as worthless as her husband & reckless, even flamboyant in their indiscretions, to grief when her royal yacht Britannia was scrapped in 1997.

She is notoriously cheap & this manifested first at her coronation in 1953 when she served her foreign guests sandwiches filled with rubber chicken mixed with raisins & mayo. Many criticize her for that but it was the prototype recipe for rubber chicken & made vegans of the guests.

Many compare her to her great-great-grandmother Victoria & one can understand why she takes exception to that. Victoria was a notoriously reclusive & prudish person–whose name was given to those unpleasant souls with a pole stuck up their butts. The greatest likeness is in countenance since both appear to need prunes as a dietary suupplement.

Betty is patron of more than 620 charities. There’s no largesse involved. It just means she goes hand-waving for them every once in a while.

Photo is Betty at one of her hand-waving gigs in Scotland where many have called fraud over the recent elections sticking with the Commonwealth.

(Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

In fact, Jordan is taking in refugees from Syria, as it has long taken in Palestinians dispossessed by Israel. That’s just a fact, not a commendation of Jordan’s feudal monarchy.

The refugees themselves dictate our solidarity. They are choosing to flee to Europe & we have no rights to second-guess them. Our only commitment is to support them wherever they go. European countries, along with the US, Canada, Australia, have every obligation to take refugees & immigrants in because this tsunami would not be happening were it not for military aggression against the peoples of the Middle East.

An essential part of solidarity with refugees is re-building the international antiwar movement demanding US-NATO get the hell out of the Middle East & stop supporting the apartheid regime of Israel.

When you contrast the promises of the SYRIZA regime for a more humane immigration policy & its open borders policy for several months to the re-imposition of EU/Frontex policies, it becomes clear that the common denominator in barbarism against refugees & in austerity policies against Greek working people is the European Union. It’s digging its own grave–but it’s not shoveling fast enough. We need to help bury it.

It has to be said outright that the nearly 3,000 who have drowned just this year–including small children like baby Aylan Kurdi & those who were elderly or infirm–died as a direct result of EU policy & never had to lose their lives. It wasn’t written in the stars & it can’t just be blamed on traffickers sending people who can’t swim out in rickety boats without life vests. Once again, Europe has 26 navies prowling the Mediterranean Sea. They should have one mission & one mission only: to intercept those dinghies & floating death traps to rescue refugees from drowning & transport them to Italy. Don’t even try to tell us they’re too busy with other duties. With over 26 warships cruising the Mediterranean there must be a traffic jam out there.

One heartening thing is that the refugees aren’t going down passively. Not only are they knocking down razor wire fences & pushing through police cordons on their way north, but they are protesting in Greece against the desultory processing of immigration papers by Greek authorities. We need to add our voices to theirs demanding the EU cease its anti-refugee intrigues & open the damn borders.

This is a very poignant & powerful image. The shoes represent human beings, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons–all with dreams, hopes, fears, needs. They were our brothers & sisters. May they Rest in Peace. And may we proceed in power to demand immigration as a human right.

(Photo by Mohamed Ben Khalifa/AP)