Sham Elections in Myanmar properly known as Burma

(Zaheena Rasheed’s post from the ALJAZEERA NEWS on 27 December 2025.)

Yangon, Myanmar – Voters in parts of Myanmar are heading to the polls on Sunday for an election that critics view as a bid by the country’s generals to legitimise military rule, nearly five years after they overthrew the government of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The multi-phased election is unfolding amid a raging civil war, with ethnic armed groups and opposition militias fighting the military for control of vast stretches of territory, stretching from the borderlands with Bangladesh and India in the west, across the central plains, to the frontiers with China and Thailand in the north and east.

In central Sagaing, voting will take place in only a third of the region’s townships on Sunday. Another third will be covered during a second and third phase in January, while voting has been cancelled altogether in the remainder.

Deadly Pokies are Banned in Western Australia

(Josh Nicholas’s post from the GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA on 10 January 2023.)

Western Australia shows the harm poker machines are doing to the rest of the Australia: Pokies are banned in the state everywhere except casinos – and it has the lowest rates of gambling losses per capita (and suicide) in Australia to show for it.

While clubs in New South Wales and Victoria have been embroiled in acrimonious battles in recent months over their reliance on poker machine revenue, there is one state where they are banned – and where gambling losses are much lower.

Since 1985, pokies have been banned in WA's pubs and clubs, with their presence limited solely to the Crown Casino. This provides us with some geographic variation in Australia on gambling, if we consider WA to be a `pokie-less' equivalent of the eastern states.

In Western Australia poker machines are allowed only in the casino. It has the lowest rates of gambling losses per capita in the country, and reported symptoms of problematic gambling are higher in the other states, experts say.

Unholy Alliance: Islamists, Leftists, and LGBTQA+

       (AI overview from the GOOGLE SEARCH on 22 December 2025.)

Islamists will kill the Lefties.

The phrase "unholy alliance" has been used in various political and historical contexts to describe unexpected or seemingly contradictory partnerships, most notably the "alliance" of communists and Muslims, and also the shared anti-LGBTQA+ stance between certain extremist groups. There is no "unholy alliance" of these three groups together.

Alliances Between Communists and Muslims: The term "unholy alliance" was notably used by Mohammad Reza Shah to describe the fusion between the secular left (communists, the "red") and the Islamic clerical establishment (mullahs, the "black") during the lead-up to the Iranian Revolution. This alliance was one of convenience to overthrow the existing system.

Historically, alliances have formed between communists and Muslim movements at different times and in various countries (including Russia in the early 1920s, Syria, Iraq, and Indonesia). These were often strategic partnerships to oppose Western imperialism or colonialism. However, these alliances were temporary and often ended in conflict and eventual mass exterminations like in Iran.

Evil City: Sydney's Hell of Pokies (Slot Machines)?

                 (Repost of my blog post "Uncaring Society" from 30 August 2018.)

Aussies lost 12 billion dollars a year on evil pokies.

Believe it or not, the shocking twenty percent of all the so-called Pokies (known as Slot Machines in the US) in the whole world are in Australia. The tiny population of 24 million Australians carried the heavy burden of 200,000+ pokies out of the one million+ pokies legally operating in this world.

Last year alone the horribly pokies-addicted Australians wasted over 12 billion dollars on their pokies. Which was nearly a quarter of all pension payments for older Australians aged 65 and over (estimated 3.8 million Old Aussies received nearly 48 billion dollars a year as cash-pension alone).

Anyone who walk into any local RSL club anytime will find tens and tens of pensioners feeding their meagre pension payments (about 900 A$ a fortnight) into the pokies. The worse are young children (mostly Asian girls and boys) wasting their hard-earned money on pokies in the smoke-filled pubs commonly found at many street corners in Sydney!

Jihadi preacher Wissam Haddad breaks silence

(Paul Shapiro’s post from the DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA on 19 December 2025.)

Wissam Haddad's Bankstown Mosque.

Outspoken Islamic preacher Wissam Haddad has broken his silence, claiming there's 'no evidence' he had a relationship with the prime suspect in the Bondi terror attack. Haddad delivered antisemitic lectures at an Islamic centre frequented by alleged Bondi shooter Naveed Akram, who has been charged with 15 counts of murder.

Akram, 24, is understood to have attended Al Madina Dawah Centre before allegedly carrying out Sunday's massacre with his father, Sajid Akram. Haddad, who is not suggested to have had any prior knowledge of the attacks or any involvement, denied claims that Naveed was one of his followers.

The Islamic preacher shared a statement via encrypted messaging app Telegram on Thursday evening. 'This claim is undefined and misleading,' Haddad wrote. 'The term "follower" is not explained and could refer to something as minimal as a social media follow, which does not establish endorsement, influence or a personal relationship. No evidence has been produced showing any personal, organisational, or instructional link between Naveed Akram and Wissam Haddad.'

Bondi Terrorist Naveed: Follower Of Wisam Haddad

         (Sean Dunlop’s post from ABC NEWS AUSTRALIA on 16 December 2025.)

Bondi Beach shooting gunman Naveed Akram was follower of pro-Islamic State preacher Wisam Haddad: At least one of the gunmen responsible for Sunday's terrorist attack at Bondi Beach had longstanding links to Australia's pro-Islamic State (IS) network, including to a notorious Sydney cleric, the ABC has found.

But in the lead-up to the attack, Naveed Akram, 24, was not on a terrorism watchlist, nor was his father Sajid Akram prevented from legally accessing firearms before they opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people.

Naveed Akram remains in hospital under police guard after being wounded in a shootout with police in which his father was killed. Australia's domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, examined Naveed Akram in 2019 after uncovering his associations with a Sydney-based IS cell, the ABC reported on Monday.

Bondi (Paki) Gunmen: Mindanao-trained Terrorists?

        (Sean Dunlop’s post from ABC NEWS AUSTRALIA on 16 December 2025.)

Bondi terrorists travelled to Philippines for 'military-style training', security sources say: Father-son gunmen Sajid and Naveed Akram travelled to the Philippines to receive "military-style training" in the month before they killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, security sources have   confirmed.

The revelation comes after the ABC reported Naveed Akram, 24, had longstanding links to members of Australia's pro-Islamic State (IS) network — including to notorious jihadist spiritual leader Wisam Haddad and convicted IS youth recruiter Youssef Uweinat. Through a lawyer, Mr Haddad has said he "vehemently denies any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings that took place at Bondi Beach".

Investigators are now examining the Akrams' ties to an international jihadist network, after discovering the pair travelled to Manila in early November, according to officials briefed on the investigation. Naveed and Sajid Akram then journeyed to the southern Philippines and underwent militant training, said a senior counter-terrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The pair returned to Australia in late November, officials said, just weeks before Sunday's massacre at Bondi Beach.

The Big Short (Aus) is Coming: Mortgage-Bonds Vs CDS

(My disturbing thoughts on the soon-coming Australian Version of THE BIG SHORT.)

Any Australian wise enough to understand the movie “THE BIG SHORT” and then read Michael Lewis’s book “THE BIG SHORT” would certainly realise that the Australian version of “THE BIG SHORT” has been well overdue here in Sydney.

Last 35 years since late 1990s, when the Capital-Gain-Tax (CGT) was halved by John Howard’s Liberal Government, Sydney houses have been in an incredible floating bubble massively super-inflated by landlords’ favourite the Negative Gearings, for the median house price has risen into the upper-stratosphere. From well below A$ 100,000 in 1990 to well over A$ 1,000,000 now in 2025.

I still remember the day when I bought my first house in Sydney in 1990, I paid A$ 98,000 for that brick-veneer-three-bedders while I was earning A$ 48,000 a year as a production manager in an engineering company and my wife was on A$ 27,000 a year as a tutor in Sydney University.