A Lung Cancer Patient’s Miraculous Journey of Physical and Mental Healing

It appears that Falun gong practise informs the bodies life energy to restore vitality.  The avtual exercises work around holding muscvle groups for a vset time period of twenty minutes.  If 6he muscle fails, then hte body sets out to become stronger.+  Yet no sweat.

i suspect we all need to read their mate5ial and apply as we see fit.  i use machines twice a week to induce this behavior.  At least you may now understand the objective.

It is contrary to most of our teachings.

A Lung Cancer Patient’s Miraculous Journey of Physical and Mental Healing

Lisa Bian

Jul 26 2023

Yoon Kang Won, 63, the president of Sejong City Sports Association, was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 46. After practicing Falun Gong, not only did he regain his physical health, but he also achieved success in his career and enjoyed a harmonious and happy family life. The picture shows Yoon Kang Won in the office of Sejong City Sports Association on May 29, 2023. (Courtesy of Yoon Kang Won)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/a-lung-cancer-patients-miraculous-journey-of-physical-and-mental-healing-5391993

From looking at him, you wouldn’t be able to tell that Yoon Kang Won, 63, was once a lung cancer patient who had half of a lung removed.

“After undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer, even a simple task like walking 10 meters was a challenge for me. However, after six months, my body had recovered to a state of health similar to when I was in my 20s. Now, over a decade has passed, and I have maintained excellent health,” Mr. Yoon, the president of Sejong City Sports Association in South Korea, told The Epoch Times, appearing strong and healthy.

Today, he has achieved great success in his career and actively contributes to South Korean society.

So how did Mr. Yoon recover from such a debilitating illness?

From Repeated Entrepreneurial Setbacks to Lung Cancer

Before the age of 47, Mr. Yoon experienced many unfortunate events.

He had tried various entrepreneurial ventures, such as selling automated equipment and operating a farm, but no matter what he did, it always ended in failure. The setbacks in his career caused immense mental stress, leading to the development of severe panic disorder. He frequently experienced sudden and intense difficulty breathing and feelings of fear, prompting him to rush to the hospital. He also suffered from adhesive capsulitis (also known as frozen shoulder).

During a routine health checkup in 2006, an unexpected lung cancer diagnosis struck him like a thunderbolt, amplifying his misfortune. At only 46 years old, he was an occasional smoker but had no respiratory symptoms.

Fortunately, the lung cancer was detected in its early stages. He underwent surgery to remove half of his left lung and received chemotherapy. The process was painful, and the toxic side effects of chemotherapy took a toll on his body. At one point, his thighs became as thin as his arms. Additionally, he experienced physical weakness, fatigue, and shortness of breath, affecting his daily life.

“Is my life destined to be unfortunate?” Mr. Yoon wondered, filled with disappointment, sadness, frustration, and anxiety.

Lung cancer typically presents no symptoms during its early stages. According to the American Cancer Society, it accounts for about one-fifth of all cancer deaths in the United States. More people die of lung cancer than breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined each year. Over half of lung cancer patients die within one year of diagnosis.

A Miraculous Journey to Healing and Recovery

In 2006, approximately three months after undergoing lung cancer surgery and chemotherapy, Mr. Yoon found himself in despair, contemplating spending his remaining days as a monk. In Eastern culture, renouncing worldly pursuits through monasticism is often regarded as a means to escape the impacts of emotional and health-related circumstances.

However, soon after, he received an unexpected gift from a monk, which changed his mind about pursuing a monastic life.

The gift included a book titled “Zhuan Falun” and a set of instructional videos on Falun Gong.

“Zhuan Falun” serves as the core book of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), a spiritual qigong practice introduced by Mr. Li Hongzhi from China in 1992. Falun Gong follows the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance” and encompasses five sets of exercises, including sitting meditation.

“When I began reading “Zhuan Falun” at home, I was amazed. I felt that this book was truly extraordinary,” he shared. “What’s truly remarkable is that while reading this book, my foremost inclination was to assist my wife with washing dishes and cleaning the house. It’s truly incredible how this book can ignite one’s sense of compassion.”

He started practicing Falun Gong on January 11, 2007. “That day remains unforgettable due to the extremely cold weather, with temperature ranging from -10 to -20 C (14 to -4 F). Despite the freezing conditions, I was determined to join other Falun Gong practitioners at a nearby park for group exercises from 8 to 10 p.m.”

Initially, his decision was met with strong objections from his wife, as lung cancer patients are particularly vulnerable to catching a cold due to the potentially severe complications it can cause.

“At that time, I didn’t know the exact reason, but something within me gave me the courage to brave the harsh cold, and I stepped outside without fear,” he explained. “Interestingly, the result of this decision put my wife’s worries to rest, as after my practice that day, she praised me for having a ‘radiant and youthful complexion like a baby’s,’ and I didn’t catch a cold either.”

From then on, he remained committed to joining the daily group exercises at the park, leading to improved health, a lighter body, reduced shortness of breath, and gradual strength recovery.

After approximately six months, one day, he suddenly realized that he had “fully regained his health.” It was not just his health state in his 40s before being diagnosed with lung cancer, but the energy and vitality he had in his 20s that he had regained. “All the symptoms that had manifested after the lung cancer surgery and cancer treatment had vanished, and even the previous conditions of panic disorder and adhesive capsulitis had disappeared,” he said.

“Since then, I have been devotedly practicing Falun Gong, and to this day, I have maintained excellent health. It has been over a decade since I last took any medication.”

After regaining his health, he took on a job in 2008 manufacturing hard alloy tools for over six months. This job involved exposure to dust particles, which could have been detrimental to his lungs and respiratory system. However, to his amazement, he remarked, “My lungs were not affected in any way. What’s more, I even participated in weekly soccer matches, playing through both halves. It is truly unbelievable.”

He also mentioned that throughout the widespread COVID-19 pandemic over the past three years, he had only tested positive once in a nucleic acid test in 2022 but remained asymptomatic.

Fortune Smiles: Achieving Success in Career and Family

After regaining his health, Mr. Yoon embarked on a new entrepreneurial journey in 2009, this time entering the construction materials industry. However, unlike his previous attempts, this venture thrived and grew exponentially. The company’s performance skyrocketed, and its revenue surpassed its initial targets several 10s of times.

In recent years, he has also served as the president of a charitable organization called the Sejong City Sports Association.

He attributes his business success to practicing Falun Gong and living by the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.”

He revealed that while running his company, he no longer resorted to bribery to compete with others as he had done in the past. “Without the greed for money and adopting a more relaxed approach, the business actually thrived,” he explained.

“I have become upright and genuine in my interactions with others, treating them with sincerity. Both my clients and employees recognize me as a trustworthy and respectable person. With such qualities, it is only natural that my business would thrive.”

Mr. Yoon also witnessed a transformation in his relationship with his wife. Previously, it was common for his wife and him to argue and bicker, but now they live in harmony and happiness.

“In my opinion, gaining the respect of one’s wife is not an easy task. However, nowadays, my wife says that she truly respects me,” he said.

Scientific Research Demonstrates Significant Improvement of Cancer With Falun Gong

In a study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in 2016, researchers from Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States observed 152 Chinese late-stage cancer patients who practiced Falun Gong. The primary cancer sites included chiefly the lungs and liver, as well as the stomach, leukemia, esophagus, gynecological sites, pancreas or bile ducts, colorectal, and others.

The study found that 149 patients were still alive and healthy as of the report date. Compared to the predicted survival period of 5.1±2.7 months, the actual survival period was significantly prolonged to 56.0±60.1 months, with a median time of 1.3±1.7 months for symptom improvement. Among the cases, 147 (96.7 percent) reported complete recovery of symptoms, with 60 cases confirmed by attending physicians. The median time for complete symptom recovery was 3.6±3.3 months, and the median duration of symptom-free survival was 52.7±61.1 months. Additionally, the practice of Falun Gong resulted in a significant improvement in patients’ quality of life.

The study demonstrates that practicing Falun Gong can significantly extend survival time and improve symptoms in late-stage cancer patients.

In a clinical case report published in F1000 Research in 2020, notable clinical benefits were observed in an elderly patient with castration-resistant terminal prostate cancer following the practice of Falun Gong. The treating physician assessed the patient’s prostate malignancy as “clinically under control” and noted that his “overall functional status was excellent.” Despite a six-month predicted life expectancy, the patient survived for 61 months.

The Extensive Health Benefits of Falun Gong

In May 1998, the General Administration of Sport of China conducted a sampling survey among Falun Gong practitioners. Of the 12,553 practitioners surveyed, 83.4 percent reported having one or more illnesses before practicing Falun Gong. After practicing for several months to several years, these individuals experienced significant improvements in their health conditions. The recovery rate reached 77.5 percent, with an additional 20.4 percent showing improvement, resulting in an overall effective rate of 97.9 percent.

A survey study published in Health Behavior and Policy Review in 2020 involving over a thousand practitioners of Falun Gong in Taiwan revealed that among eight indicators, including “physical health” and “mental health,” Falun Gong practitioners scored significantly higher than the population norm in six indicators. The only two indicators where there was no significant difference between Falun Gong practitioners and the norm were “physical function” and “social function.” Notably, Falun Gong practitioners demonstrated remarkable superiority over the norm in terms of “physical health status” and “role limitations due to emotional problems.” Additionally, Falun Gong practitioners aged 65 and above exhibited significantly higher scores than the norm across all eight physical and mental health indicators.

The study also investigated the occurrence of chronic illnesses among Falun Gong practitioners, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory diseases, and hypertension. The findings revealed that practicing Falun Gong resulted in a 70 to 89 percent improvement or complete recovery from these illnesses.

Furthermore, practicing Falun Gong also led to changes in the participants’ lifestyle habits, with 74.2 percent of alcohol consumers and 79.2 percent of smokers successfully quitting their respective habits.

The Indian pragmatist

someone I had never heard of but should have a long time bago.  but then who really understands john Dewey either.  We have had a century of so called Marxists activists about suppressing all other opinions.  so no surprise there.

It is enough he worked agianst caste, but so did the Raj in its day, and progress was measured in millimetres.

Yet all economic thinking must addrsss the poor as their prosperity makes universal prosperity easy.  It really is that simple as we have seen anyway.

The Indian pragmatist

Ambedkar was not only a politician, but a profound thinker whose philosophy of democracy challenged the caste system

Dalit children sit next to a painting of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar at the 2006 Vanangana conference in Chitrakoot. Photo by Ami Vitali/Panos

Scott R Stroud

https://aeon.co/essays/what-ambedkar-learned-from-dewey-and-brought-to-india

is a philosopher and scholar of rhetoric. He is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His most recent book is The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: Ambedkar, Dewey, and the Rhetoric of Reconstruction (2023), which was also published in India as The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: An Intellectual Biography of B R Ambedkar (2023).

Edited bySam Haselby

When one thinks of American pragmatism, one often puts too much emphasis on the American part. It might even stunt our enquiry, irrevocably fixating on thinkers such as John Dewey, William James, and Jane Addams. But there is more to the story of pragmatism than what happened in the United States around the turn of the 20th century. Pragmatism itself was a flexible, loosely allied approach to thinking that held few maxims in common other than the idea that our theorising and arguing ought to come from lived experience and ought to return back to experience as the ultimate test of its value. Its advocates such as Dewey greatly affected nations such as China through his teaching and lecturing, leading us to see that pragmatism has a global narrative connected with it. Is there a similar tale to be told about pragmatism and its interactions with India?

Portrait of John Dewey (1932) by Samuel Johnson Woolf. Courtesy the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

Any narrative of pragmatism’s influence and evolution in India will centre on Bhimrao Ambedkar, a student of Dewey’s at Columbia University in New York. Some might recognise Ambedkar (1891-1956) as a chief architect of the Indian constitution in the 1940s. Others might recognise him as the indefatigable leader of India’s ‘untouchables’ (now denoted by the self-chosen label ‘Dalit’), given his constant advocacy for the rights of those oppressed by the complex and long-rooted caste system. Ambedkar himself was a so-called untouchable, which only fortified his commitment to seeking justice in the law and in social reforms for India’s most vulnerable populations. At the end of his life, he channelled his frustration at the prevailing caste consciousness within Hindu society into a conversion effort that tried to convince his fellow Dalits to convert away from Hinduism and into a more egalitarian Buddhism. On 14 October 1956, just weeks before he died, he led what was at the time one of the world’s largest voluntary mass conversions. This event held in Nagpur featured Ambedkar, his wife Savita, and an estimated 500,000 Dalits converting to Buddhism. For reasons such as these, Ambedkar was voted the ‘greatest Indian’ in post-independence India in a poll that included more than 20 million votes being cast.

Ambedkar was not merely a political figure or leader. He was also a philosopher. One can see the evidence for this in the reconstructed Buddhism that he advanced in his final years, coalescing in his rewritten ‘Buddhist Bible’, The Buddha and His Dhamma, which was completed just before his death on 6 December 1956. In this book, Ambedkar reconstructed the narrative of the Buddha, de-emphasising traditional formulas such as the four noble truths, and foregrounding poverty, injustice and the building up of social communities. In short, he reconstructed the Buddhist tradition and its myriad texts to show how it could function as a social gospel, or an engaged philosophy that could even meet the growing waves of those inspired by Karl Marx and Russian communism in the 1950s.

The intersections of Ambedkar’s political activism and his philosophical acumen were vividly displayed earlier in his life. The 1930s was a period marred by Ambedkar’s conflict with the powerful symbol of the Indian independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi. Having lost faith in the Hindu tradition as amenable to social reform, Ambedkar grew so disillusioned that, by 1935, he proclaimed in a speech that, although he was born a Hindu, ‘I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu.’ By 1936, he was very loudly criticising Hinduism and its holy texts, and imploring his fellow Dalits to convert away from Hinduism to escape their oppressive status as ‘untouchables’. In an infamous speech – undelivered because of its explosive criticisms of sacred Hindu shastras (holy texts) – Ambedkar argues that the caste system is harmful not only because it is oppressive, but most importantly because it destroys the unity and respect among members that are essential to democracy. Ambedkar’s activism on the specific issue of caste oppression was underwritten by a full-throated philosophy of democracy.

Ambedkar (middle row, far right) with colleagues at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, 1916-17. Courtesy Wikipedia

His thought was creative and powerful. But no thinker springs fully formed onto the intellectual scene. Where did Ambedkar find the inspiration for the image of democracy he was going to construct – and then employ – in his fight for social justice in India? Ambedkar was one of the most well-read Indians of his period, possessing a personal library of around 50,000 books at the time of his death. But he was also one of the most highly educated Indian leaders of his day, with academic and legal credentials from institutions such as Columbia University, the London School of Economics, and Gray’s Inn. One of the most intriguing things about Ambedkar is that he pursued much of his Western education in the US, and not just in the well-known universities so many of his Indian (and upper-caste) compatriots frequented. Ambedkar went to Columbia in 1913-16 and was exposed to one-of-a-kind progressive intellectuals bent on using academic research to change societies and practices for the better. At Columbia, Ambedkar would study intensively with the US economist and taxation specialist Edwin R A Seligman; the Russian-born economic historian, ornery anti-Marxist and amateur gardener Vladimir Simkhovitch; and perhaps the most impressive philosopher of the day, John Dewey.

In his later years, Ambedkar remembered all these figures but Dewey and his pragmatism stood out. While Ambedkar was making his way back to Columbia in 1952 to receive an honorary degree, Dewey died of pneumonia. Distraught, Ambedkar wrote to his wife Savita from New York lamenting the fact that he missed the chance to see his beloved teacher: ‘I was looking forward to meet[ing] Prof Dewey.’ Ambedkar’s letter then revealed what Dewey had meant to him: ‘I am so sorry. I owe all my intellectual life to him. He was a wonderful man.’

The courses Ambedkar took from Dewey gave the young Indian reformer a powerful overview of pragmatism

Ambedkar had accomplished so much, both in the millions of words he wrote or spoke to intellectual or general audiences, and in the political and social activism he pursued. But what sort of intellectual debt did he owe Dewey? While many have noted this intriguing letter, none have truly explored the historical and intellectual relationship between Dewey and Ambedkar. This is a shame, since both are intellectual giants in their own rights, and their confluence can show us what Ambedkar saw as valuable in Dewey – and how Ambedkar’s own pragmatism extends the pluralistic tradition of pragmatism. Ambedkar was not just an activist – he was also a philosopher. The philosophy he advocated was a form of pragmatism fitted to the concerns of democracy amid social divisions such as those of caste.

While taking classes at Columbia University, Ambedkar stumbled into Dewey’s classroom. He shouldn’t have been there – the young Indian had signed an agreement in 1913 with the Maharaja of Baroda, his financial supporter, that he would study only finance and sociology at Columbia. But Dewey had a profile that would have been difficult for Ambedkar to resist in his coursework. The US pragmatist was at the top of his game in the 1910s, engaged in the philosophical work that would inform his book Democracy and Education (1916). Dewey was also hard at work creating institutions such as the American Association of University Professors in 1915 – with figures such as Ambedkar’s advisor, Seligman – dedicated to protecting academic freedom at US universities.

Dewey’s philosophy was also making its mark on the US scene. By the time he had joined Columbia’s faculty, he had already gained fame with his early writings from his time at the University of Michigan and his operation of the ‘Laboratory School’ at the University of Chicago, an example of how Dewey’s practical experiments informed his philosophical writings. By the time Ambedkar heard Dewey at Columbia, Dewey had left his older philosophically Idealist vocabulary behind and was engaged in exploring the interaction of community and experience in human life. Resisting the older emphases in much European philosophy toward the unchanging and certain, Dewey revelled in an ever-changing and uncertain world.

Dewey’s thought emphasised this important nexus of experience. It merged his two guiding lights – G W F Hegel and Charles Darwin – into a vision of philosophy as doing justice to the lived qualities of experience, as well as the human capacity for reflection or enquiry. Our powers of reason were not godly or divine, but they came from and returned to courses of experience that called for our engaged attention to reconstruct them. Dewey’s philosophy dovetailed with his work on education and pedagogy, as they both saw the human as a habit-bearing being that could bring these habits to bear on experience that offered more problems than resources. He saw the power in our ability to intelligently change the habits of self and other to become better adapted to our social and natural environments. Dewey’s philosophy aimed to theorise the world so as to enable us to better adjust to it or to adapt it to our needs. His thought was oriented at reconstructing ourselves and our communities, more so than simply to describe the truths of the world.

The courses that Ambedkar took from Dewey in psychological ethics and political philosophy gave the young Indian reformer a powerful overview of pragmatism. He saw Dewey as extending and enlarging the tradition of philosophy that William James (1842-1910) and Charles S Peirce (1839-1914) had helped to shape, and that contemporary figures such as Jane Addams (1860-1935) and Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch (1867-1951) were both theorising and putting into practice in the social sphere. There are many stories to be told about Ambedkar, but there is one that has yet to be fully explored. It is a story of influence, imagination and emancipation. It is the story of Ambedkar as a pragmatist.

What does it mean to consider Ambedkar as a pragmatist? Does it mean we are somehow capturing his essence, and excluding the other important labels often attached to him and his life story? In short, no. Just as Ambedkar can be described as a Buddhist and as a politician, he can also be described as a pragmatist. Each of these labels gives us a way of understanding and foregrounding certain facts and themes in his life story; no label captures everything or is the ‘final’ descriptor of who one is.

It is in this spirit that Ambedkar can be talked about as a pragmatist, meaning that he and his thought developed to some extent in reaction to other pragmatists such as Dewey. Thinking about Ambedkar as a pragmatist highlights certain themes in his approach and his thought that we may not have appreciated before. It also makes sense of the newly discovered archival evidence that I explore in my book The Evolution of Pragmatism in India (2023), indicating that Ambedkar sought to combine Dewey’s views on democracy with Buddhism as early as 1914.

Ambedkar’s reception of Dewey in forming his own philosophy – his own pragmatism, as I see it – is complex. Dewey inspired Ambedkar to evolve a sort of pragmatism that targeted caste oppression, but which built up a vision of democratic social systems that allowed individuals to matter.

Dewey gave Ambedkar ideas, ideals and even methods to experiment with or even resist. He saw in the philosophy espoused by his American teacher a source of novelty and creativity. Through his courses with Dewey, and in the many books by Dewey that he continued to purchase and annotate into the 1950s, we can see how Dewey’s pragmatism was an important touchstone or inspiration for Ambedkar. It was not something he would blindly copy or duplicate. Instead, it became a resource and a source of motivation to do certain things in certain ways once he returned to India. In a methodological sense, it showed him the value of reconstruction. Dewey had problems with the quest for certainty among philosophers ranging from Plato to Immanuel Kant to many of his contemporaries; Ambedkar felt a similar constriction when it came to the claims to timelessness and divine certainty made on behalf of the sanatan (eternal) tradition stemming from the ancient Vedas. Ambedkar saw this same tradition as underwriting the customs of caste that had divided Indian society and oppressed individuals like him for thousands of years.

There was nothing Ambedkar could do in this lifetime to remove the stain of untouchability in the eyes of others

The pragmatist commitment to philosophy as a way not just to grasp the eternal truths of the world and hold on, but instead to purposefully change or reconstruct it, struck a chord in Ambedkar. One common thread across all the disparate parts of his intellectual and practical life was the idea that he should not remain content with the world as received by him or his surrounding culture. He felt the command to change this world, and to change those that might have power over it, through his activism, his political manoeuvres, and even his impassioned speeches. The world for Ambedkar was what we could make of it, and he saw a path to reconstructing it in a more just manner that would erase the sort of hate and suffering he felt as an ‘untouchable’.

But reconstruction must aim for something. What did Ambedkar’s selective and creative pragmatism aim for as its goals or ends? What sort of moral ideals did it strive to realise? One of the recurring themes in Ambedkar’s harsh criticisms of caste throughout his life was that this graded social system suppressed the ‘human personality’ of those in ‘lower’ castes. It limited the occupations that individuals could pursue, the clothes they could wear, and even the paths they could travel, to birth status. It was at birth that one received one’s special mix of traits or potentialities from past lives, as Ambedkar saw the caste system play out in his life. He was an untouchable because of his birth placement, one that resided at the very bottom of the graded hierarchy of caste groups, and one that most other ‘higher castes’ saw as ritually polluting. There was nothing that Ambedkar could do, at least in this lifetime, that would remove the stain of untouchability in the eyes of others enraptured by these customs.

For Ambedkar, this was an affront to the worth of the individual. Drawing from Dewey’s early works – especially his essay ‘The Ethics of Democracy’ (1888) – Ambedkar came back from his education in the West and argued that caste customs hurt the ‘growth of personality’ and developed only ‘the personality of the few at the cost of the many – a result scrupulously to be avoided in the interest of Democracy.’ Each person was unique in their mix of impulses, drives and interests, and the best sort of society would help individuals create and recreate themselves with their social engagement. All he saw with caste was a restraining and limiting of what roles and talents an individual could develop. Ambedkar would often refer to his battle against the caste system – epitomised by his hatred for the practice of untouchability – as ‘a battle for the reclamation of human personality, which has been suppressed and mutilated by the Hindu social system.’ For Ambedkar, as well as for young Dewey, society worked best when it offered freedom and opportunity for each individual to develop as a valued member of a community. Democracy became the philosophy that facilitated this evolution of each person beyond strictures of separated classes or castes.

Ambedkar’s philosophy orbits around another recognisably pragmatist commitment – the idea that communities matter in both science and ethics. Indeed, Ambedkar would maintain that vital senses of democracy went beyond the overtly political. Democracy was a habit for Ambedkar, as well as for Dewey, and not just a formal way of decision-making among elected officials. Throughout his writings, Ambedkar was fond of echoing Dewey’s phrase from Democracy and Education, saying that:

Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellowmen.

Later in his life, Ambedkar would refer to democracy as a way of life. All of this pointed to the central idea that social democracy was an ideal to be achieved in our everyday experience.

But what can we make of social democracy as a habit or a way of life? For Ambedkar’s pragmatism, democracy became more about how we interact with our fellow community members or citizens than about constitutions and voting exercises. Political institutions and laws are important, of course, but what was of primary importance for Ambedkar – and his teacher, Dewey – were the customs and habits that animated us in our myriad interactions with our friends and foes in social experience.

Part of Ambedkar’s philosophical genius lies in how he reworks this idea of deep democracy into a normative framework used to critique caste. He saw caste as both a group custom and as an individual habit of how one reacts to others. It was inherently and essentially divisive. Caste habits, and caste labels, told Ambedkar and his fellow community members how they should value and act toward each other. In his own case, it led others to exclude or limit contact with him. If democracy meant the formation of groups where each individual mattered, caste was, Ambedkar surmised, inherently antidemocratic. But on what standard ought we judge systems and communities as a whole?

This was a problem for the sort of philosophy that young Ambedkar heard in Dewey’s courses. Dewey would advise that ideals and moral values came from within a historical or community context. He was reluctant to appeal to sources of transcendental certainty, like God or pure reason, to settle matters. Ambedkar appreciated this intuition, but he needed something more than an appeal to culture or a tradition. For him, the problems of India were inherently connected to a millennia-old stratification of its communities into a hierarchy of occupation and value-determining classes based upon birth. As he would put it in an early publication, Indian society under caste was a tower with many floors but no stairways upon which one could ascend.

He criticised Russian communism for achieving equality through violent means that sacrificed the liberty of many

Ambedkar knew that much of this caste superstructure was grounded on claims to ‘timeless’ or divinely revealed matters in holy texts. Like Dewey, he could not appeal to moral certainties to counter other divine truths. But his pragmatic approach became speckled with constant appeals to three values – liberty, equality and fraternity. These were the values of the French Revolution that Ambedkar heard in Dewey’s course in March 1916, perhaps for the first time. Later in his life, Ambedkar would make overt efforts to translate these terms into Buddhist concepts. But the trichotomy remained. These terms were not tethered to one culture – including French – but instead became semi-transcendent values that could be used to critique any community as to its adherence to the democratic ideal and the value of developing the personality of each individual. Justice was the tense balance among these three valued aspects of individual and communal experience.

The power of these values, seen across Ambedkar’s speeches, as well as the preamble to the Indian constitution he took a heavy hand in drafting, was that they revealed the problems with caste and with potential solutions such as communism. Ambedkar would bring these values to bear to show how caste customs functioned to destroy the liberty and equality of those judged ‘untouchable’. He would also, later in his life, criticise the communism he saw in Russia for achieving equality through violent means that inevitably sacrificed the liberty of many and the sense of fraternity among the opposing groups in society. The way to make individuals matter must focus on their equal treatment and their ability to freely direct their lives. It also must result in the creation of a community characterised by shared interests and mutual respect, a state of affairs so central to the often-overlooked value of fraternity.

Ambedkar’s philosophy is an anti-caste philosophy but, in drawing upon the pragmatist ideal of deep democracy, it became something even more encompassing – a philosophy of democracy. Talking of Ambedkar’s pragmatism is a way of highlighting a constellation of important ideas and ideals from Dewey, retasked for the Indian context. It also allows us to see Ambedkar as a global philosopher, one concerned with caste and with other problems that undo the search for democratic communities. What results is something absolutely unique in the pragmatist tradition: an evolution of social democracy that brings new insights into the problems of oppression and division, and a creative way to reconstruct society through a tense and ever-changing balance of freedom, equality and fellow-feeling among all those who share a common fate together.

‘Perfectly Preserved’ Glassware Recovered From 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck

We do not see a trove like this and it a serious sampling of the art.  all during the mature period of roman rules.  ship wrecks are really our best window to the past.

most of our discoveries are through a five century span when the seas were safe enough for a high volume of shipping.  after that we had the Islamic interlude suppressing shipping and of course befire that we had a slow period as well.

The bigger question is the extent of bronze Age shipping from 2500 BC through 500 Bc.  We need to identify target ports to properly make predictions.  All difficult, but our remote methods are coming up to speed as well.

‘Perfectly Preserved’ Glassware Recovered From 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck

The Roman vessel may have sunk while transporting glass from the Middle East to France

Sarah Kuta

Daily CorrespondentJuly 27, 2023

Archaeologists recovered a collection of blown-glass tableware in excellent condition. © Manuel Añò/ ProdAqua

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/glassware-2000-year-old-roman-shipwreck-180982615/

Archaeologists have recovered thousands of pieces of glassware—many of them “perfectly preserved”—from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck in the waters between Italy and France.

The Roman vessel, called the Capo Corso 2, is located 1,148 feet below the surface between France’s Cap Corso peninsula and Italy’s Capraia island.

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Marine archaeologists from Italy and France teamed up to explore the wreckage during the first week of July, according to a statement from Italy’s National Superintendency for Underwater Cultural Heritage. Other researchers also participated in the study, including experts who specialize in ancient glass, marine ecology and underwater conservation.

In 2012, the wreck was first discovered by engineer Guido Gay, according to the statement. Archaeologists completed an initial survey of the site in 2013, then went back a second time for additional analysis in 2015.

This summer, international researchers revisited the wreck once again. Using two remotely operated vehicles (ROV)—named Arthur and Hilarion—they conducted scans of the site to look for any changes over time. They also directed Arthur to gently use its mounted claw system to recover artifacts from the wreck.

The robot pulled up two bronze basins, some Bronze Age jars called amphorae and a large collection of glass tableware objects, including bowls, cups, bottles and plates. The team took those artifacts to a laboratory in Italy for further study and restoration.

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On the ship, archaeologists also discovered blocks of raw glass in various sizes in the wreck. Based on the kinds of glassware found, the researchers think the ship was traveling from a port in the Middle East, likely Syria or Lebanon, and that it was probably heading toward the French Provençal coast.

A remotely operated vehicle named Arthur used a mounted claw system to carefully recover the glass artifacts. © Manuel Añò / ProdAqua

In addition to recovering artifacts, the team wants to “assess the biological state of the wreck,” reports Newsweek’s Robyn White. “Shipwrecks often become artificial reefs for sea life over a period of time. The structures often create thriving ecosystems, as marine organisms attach themselves to their surface.”

Archaeologists estimate the wreck dates back to the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century C.E. They hope to glean more information about its age through additional study of the recovered artifacts.

Ultimately, the shipwreck should help researchers “reconstruct a page in the history of Mediterranean trade,” reads the statement.

It continues: “Given the exceptional nature of the wreck and the results of this first survey campaign, the researchers of both countries hope to be able to start a broader multidisciplinary project in the coming years.”

Comeback for Cold Fusion

What happened to the discoverers of the effect was disgusting, but research did continue elsewhere at least.  I do know that i have seen reports that we can boil water.  No surprise that that is it.  It is clearly a difficult phenom.

Now if you have been tracking my posts regarding Cloud cosmology, you also understand that our percieved matter rests in an ocean of packed NNPs or neutral neutron particles.  This puts the whole problem of radioactive decay into a new light.  what happens if packing matters a lot.  I do think it does.

i certainly can project some interesting experiments to possibly induce decay at least.  Understand that so called fusion may well have been fision instead and related to the Dark Matter.  That is one alternative and what about simple NNP decay itself.  All this provides heat...

We really have a long way to go even if we all start thinking like i am.

Comeback for Cold Fusion

Posted on July 28, 2023 by AReditorialDept

Major Funding Provided by a US Government Agency

By Rahul Rao, Popular Science

https://www.popsci.com/science/cold-fusion-low-energy-nuclear-reaction/

Earlier this year, ARPA-E, a US government agency dedicated to funding advanced energy research, announced a handful of grants for a field it calls “low-energy nuclear reactions,” or LENR. Most scientists likely didn’t take notice of the news. But, for a small group of them, the announcement marked vindication for their specialty: cold fusion.

Cold fusion, better known by its practitioners as LENR, is the science—or, perhaps, the art—of making atomic nuclei merge and, ideally, harnessing the resultant energy. All of this happens without the incredible temperatures, on the scale of millions of degrees, that you need for “traditional” fusion. In a dream world, successful cold fusion could provide us with a boundless supply of clean, easily attainable energy.

Tantalizing as it sounds, for the past 30 years, cold fusion has largely been a forgotten specter of one of science’s most notorious controversies, when a pair of chemists in 1989 claimed to achieve the feat—which no one else could replicate. There is still no generally accepted theory that supports cold fusion; many still doubt that it’s possible at all. But those physicists and engineers who work on LENR believe the new grants are a sign that their field is being taken seriously after decades in the wilderness.

“It got a bad start and a bad reputation,” believes David Nagel, an engineer at George Washington University, “and then, over the intervening years, the evidence has piled up.”

Igniting fusion involves pressing the hearts of atoms together, creating larger nuclei and a fountain of energy. This isn’t easy. The protons inside a nucleus give it a positive charge, and like-charged nuclei electrically repel each other. Physicists must force the atoms to crash together anyway.

Normally, breaking this limit needs an immense amount of energy, which is why stars, where fusion happens naturally, and Earthbound experiments reach extreme heat. But what if there were another, lower-temperature way?

Scientists had been theorizing such methods since the early 20th century, and they’d found a few tedious, extremely inefficient ways. But in the 1980s, two chemists thought they’d made one method work to great success.

The duo, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, had placed the precious metal palladium in a bath of heavy water: a form of H2O whose hydrogen atoms have an extra neutron, a form known as deuterium, commonly used in nuclear science. When Fleischmann and Pons switched on an electrical current through their apparatus and left it running, they began to see abrupt heat spikes, or so they claimed, and particles like neutrons.

Those heat spikes and particles, according to them, could not be explained by any chemical process. What could explain them were the heavy water’s deuterium nuclei fusing, just as they would in a star.

If Fleischmann and Pons were right, fusion could be achievable at room temperature in a relatively basic chemistry lab. If you think that sounds too good to be true, you’re far from alone. When the pair announced their results in 1989, what followed was one of the most spectacular firestorms in the history of modern science. Scientist after scientist tried to recreate their experiment, and no one could reliably replicate their results.

Pons and Fleischmann are remembered as fraudsters. It likely didn’t help that they were chemists trying to make a mark on a field dominated by physicists. Whatever they had seen, “cold fusion” found itself at respectable science’s margins.

Still, in the shadows, LENR experiments continued. (Some researchers tried variations on Fleischmann and Pons’ themes. Others, especially in Japan, sought LENR as a means of cleaning up nuclear waste by transforming radioactive isotopes into less dangerous ones.) A few experiments showed oddities such as excess heat or alpha particles—anomalies that might best be explained if atomic nuclei were reacting behind the scenes.

“The LENR field has somehow, miraculously, due to the convictions of all these people involved, has stayed alive and has been chugging along for 30 years,” says Jonah Messinger, an analyst at the Breakthrough Institute think tank and a graduate student at MIT.

Fleischmann and Pons’ fatal flaw—that their results could not be replicated—continues to cast a pall over the field. Even some later experiments that seemed to show success could not be replicated. But this does not deter LENR’s current proponents. “Science has a reproducibility problem all the time,” says Florian Metzler, a nuclear scientist at MIT.

In the absence of a large official push, the private sector had provided much of LENR’s backing. In the late 2010s, for instance, Google poured several million dollars into cold fusion research to limited success. But government funding agencies are now starting to pay attention. The ARPA-E program joins European Union projects, HERMES and CleanHME, which both kicked off in 2020. (Messinger and Metzler are members of an MIT team that will receive ARPA-E grant funds.)

By the standards of other energy research funding, none of the grants are particularly eye-watering. The European Union programs and ARPA-E total up to around $10 million each: a pittance compared to the more than $1 billion the US government plans to spend in 2023 on mainstream fusion.

But that money will be used in important ways, its proponents say. The field has two pressing priorities. One is to attract attention with a high-quality research paper that clearly demonstrates an anomaly, ideally published in a reputable journal like Nature or Science. “Then, I think, there will be a big influx of resources and people,” says Metzler.

A second, longer-term goal is to explain how cold fusion might work. The laws of physics, as scientists understand them today, do not have a consensus answer for why cold fusion could happen at all.

Metzler doesn’t see that open question as a problem. “Sometimes people have made these arguments: ‘Oh, cold fusion contradicts established physics,’ or something like that,” he says. But he believes there are many unanswered questions in nuclear physics, especially with larger atoms. “We have an enormous amount of ignorance when it comes to nuclear systems,” he says.

Yet answers would have major benefits, other experts argue. “As long as it’s not understood, a lot of people in the scientific community are put off,” says Nagel. “They’re not willing to pay any attention to it.”

It is, of course, entirely possible that cold fusion is an illusion. If that’s the case, then ARPA-E’s grants may give researchers more proof that nothing is there. But it’s also possible that something is at work behind the scenes.

And, LENR proponents say, the Fleischmann and Pons saga is now fading as younger researchers enter the field with no memory of 1989. Perhaps that will finally be what lets LENR emerge from the pair’s shadow.“If there is a nuclear anomaly that occurs,” says Messinger, “my hope is that the wider physics community is ready to listen.”

Tracking the Population Crisis

What has also now become obvious is that small time financial incentives have almost zero impact.  We have a long history now proving just that.  They simply do not work.

The emerging depopulation crisis has now become completely global, however much our politicians try to ignore it all.  It is driven by two factors.  The Big one is modernity.  women find they must become financially secure before they produce children and this demands employability for women.  husbands have always been too chancy.

the second issue has been the advent of contraception.  It took a long time for this innovation to work its way through but it has and employed swomen lose any enthusiam for children as they slowly age out.  It never gets better.

I have posted regarding our future solution here and another option besides mandatory child production of four babies between 18 thru 24 is the actual advent of true age reversal which appears on the horizon now.

Mandatory child production must also include natural community support to make child bearing actually bearable.  this is returtning to my policy solution for poverty using the natural community and internal application of fiat money.

.

Tracking the Population Crisis

July 26, 2023 

y Brian Wang

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/07/tracking-the-population-crisis.html#more-185081

South Korea only had 18,988 births in May, 2023 which is the lowest births since the agency started compiling the data in 1981. This was a drop of over 5% from May 2022. The number of deaths in the country moved up 0.2 percent over the period to 28,958, resulting in a natural decrease in population by 9,970. South Korea is losing about 120,000 people per year and the total birth is about 230,000 per year which is down from 705,000 from 1990 to 1994 and 669,000 from 1995 to 1999. However, after the 1997-98 Asian Economic Crisis, the number plummeted to an average of 500,000 in the early 2000s.

Korea’s fertility rate dropped to a new low of 0.78, the lowest among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and possibly the world.

Korea would need to triple its annual births to 700,000 per year to maintain and stabilize its population.

Statistics Korea expected people aged 65 and above will take up 20 percent of the population in 2025, marking a sharp rise from 18.4 percent estimated for this year.

The Korean government sees the next five years as critical to increasing fertility and salvaging the country.

Korea’s government is considering easing the burden of gift taxes exclusively for newlywed couples, by raising the minimum amount of cash they can receive from parents without being taxed to either 100 million won ($76,000) or 150 million won.

Several municipalities have also introduced similar programs. Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, held two couple matchmaking events in July for unmarried men and women who either live or work in the region. As a result, 39 couples found a match.

Guri City in Gyeonggi Province has launched a dating show on YouTube hosted by the city’s mayor.

Donghae, Gangwon Province, recently decided to pay up to 3 million won to pregnant women. Yeongwol, Gangwon Province, pays 1 million won for giving birth to a first child, 3 million won for giving birth to a second child, and 10 million won for giving birth to a third child.

Japan and China’s Population Crisis

The number of new births in China have been falling for decades, and last year deaths outnumbered births for the first time in six decades, with the overall population falling by 850,000 to 1.4118 billion. Last year, Chinese mothers gave birth to just 9.56 million babies, representing the lowest total in modern history and the first time the figure had dipped below 10 million.

China could start losing 10 million people per year in the 2030s.

Chinese governments have been rolling out various measures to boost births, including financial and housing support and more parental leave, but actual results have been inconspicuous.

In addition to a more comprehensive and affordable childcare system, inclusion of assisted reproductive technologies in medical insurance, better publicity of the three-child policy, more policies should be reinforced, including financial support for grandparents who take on childcare responsibilities.

Japan is the world’s first “hyper-aged” country, where at least 21 percent of the population is older than 65, with projections predicting 40 percent of the population will be over retirement age by 2050.

Japan’s government failed to head off the population crisis despite Japanese demographers forecasting a crunch since the late 1970s. This is a warning for the rest of East Asia and the world. As of 2023, Japan’s fertility rate was 1.367, far below the 2.1 children per women replacement level necessary for population stability. South Korea suffers from the lowest fertility rate at 0.78, but Taiwan about 1.0, China at 1.18.

Poland, Spain and Italy all have shrinking populations.

In July 2023, Poland’s statistical office said Poland’s population has shrunk again to just under 37.7 million in June, 2023 despite returning emigrants. There were around 130,000 Poles compared to June 2022. South Korea and Poland are both dropping at similar rates.

In 2010, Poland’s population was over 38.5 million. The population is falling despite a policy of bonuses for families with many children that the right-wing government launched after taking office at the end of 2015.

China’s population is falling as of 2022 and this updated information is not shown on some population tables.

The big shockers are that India and Bangladesh have fallen below replacement despite being poor and highly populous countries.

According to India’s most recent census data, India’s population stood at 1.03 billion in 2001 and 1.21 billion in 2011. The UN’s 2022 World Population Prospects (WPP) report, however, put these figures at 1.08 billion and 1.26 billion, respectively. Moreover, India’s National Family Health Survey indicated a fertility rate of 1.99 in 2017-19, in contrast to the WPP’s estimate of 2.16.

From 2011 to 2021, India’s infant mortality rate fell from 44 deaths per 1,000 live births to 27. The secondary-education gross enrollment rate rose from 66% to 78%, and the mean years of schooling among adults aged 20 and older increased from 5.8 to 7.2 years. The contraceptive prevalence rate rose sharply from 54% in 2013-15 to 67% in 2017-19. Consequently, India’s fertility rate may be as low as 1.6-1.7 in 2024, with its population ranging between 1.37 to 1.39 billion, compared to the 1.44 billion projected by the UN.

The UN could be overestimating the 2024 population of India by the entire population of France. 50 to 70 million people overestimated.

The WPP projects that India’s fertility rate will bounce back to 1.78 in 2050 before declining to 1.69 by 2100. But in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, the fertility rates of Indian populations are barely higher than those of Chinese communities.

Hunter Biden's full plea deal

You understand that had the judge not actually read the final document, at a later date, she could be painted as corrupt.  Truth is that the lawyers had mission impossible here simply because the whole world understands that Hunter is guilty as hell.

however, I am sure they collected all their fees up front, so they played it out.

There was no way that any judge was not going to treat these documents to a fine forensic scrutiny, just to protect herself.  It is now a statement of fact that aspects must go before a federal court.  That is hardly what they wanted.  Now they can blame a too careful judge no less.  Oh the irony.

EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden's full plea deal TRANSCRIPT - and how his sneaky lawyers and prosecution team tried to hide clause giving him 'blanket immunity' in 'crazy, unprecedented' tactic until Judge Maryellen Noreika 'smelled a rat'Hunter Biden’s legal team allegedly attempted to fool Delaware judge into approving generous and unorthodox plea deal without proper scrutiny

Ex-Assistant US Attorney Will Scharf tells DailyMail.com that the proposed deal was ‘spitting in the face of justice’

a

By JOSH BOSWELL

PUBLISHED: 15:24 EDT, 27 July 2023 |

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/us-exclusive/article-12345263/Hunter-Bidens-plea-deal-

Prosecutors tried to ‘hide’ a blanket immunity clause for Hunter Biden in a ‘crazy’ and ‘unprecedented’ tactic – but were exposed by the judge during the three-hour hearing with the president's son and his lawyers in her Wilmington courtroom Tuesday. says a former government lawyer.

Ex-Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) Will Scharf slammed prosecutors and Hunter’s legal team, led by Chris Clark, for allegedly trying to fool U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika into approving the generous and unorthodox plea deal without proper scrutiny, in a fiery interview with DailyMail.com.

The president’s son strolled into the courtroom in his former hometown, confident that his 'sweetheart deal' would breeze through – only to watch the plan to put his tax problems behind him crumble before his eyes.

Scharf, a former Trump administration official who is running for Attorney General of Missouri, claimed the proposed deal was ‘spitting in the face of justice’.

Legal experts expected a perfunctory hearing to waive through Hunter Biden’s ‘sweetheart’ plea deal over two tax misdemeanor charges in a Delaware federal court Wednesday. But instead his pact with prosecutors fell apart when it was dissected by Judge Maryellen Noreika

Legal observers slammed prosecutors and Hunter’s legal team, led by Chris Clark (right), for allegedly trying to fool U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika (left) into approving the generous and unorthodox plea deal without proper scrutiny

The former federal prosecutor, as well as courtroom witnesses and a transcript from the explosive hearing on Wednesday obtained by DailyMail.com, reveal the inside story.

Legal experts expected a perfunctory hearing to wave through Hunter’s ‘sweetheart’ plea deal over two tax misdemeanor charges in a Delaware federal court Wednesday.

But instead his pact with prosecutors fell apart when it was dissected by Judge Maryellen Noreika.

Hunter’s deal put before her consisted of two documents: a ‘plea agreement’, in which Hunter confessed to two tax misdemeanors; and a ‘diversion agreement’, where prosecutors pledged to drop gun charges against him if Hunter stuck to federal rules.

Buried in the diversion agreement was a clause that gave Hunter blanket immunity for a wide range of other potential charges that could be filed by the Delaware US Attorney, including illegal foreign lobbying.

Judge Noreika said in the hearing that, due to federal rules, she could make a decision on the plea agreement but did not have a say on the diversion agreement – and complained that prosecutors had stashed the pivotal immunity clause in the latter document.

'You're saying I don't even get to accept it, I guess I'm supposed to rubber stamp it,’ she said.

'You're telling me that I don't have any role in it, and you're leaving provisions of the plea agreement out and putting them into an agreement that you are not asking me to sign off on.'

Scharf said that such non-prosecution promises always appear in the plea agreement. But in this case, they were instead ‘hidden’ in the diversion agreement.

Ex-Assistant US Attorney Will Scharf explains that buried in the 'diversion' agreement was a clause that gave Hunter blanket immunity for a wide range of other potential charges that could be filed by the Delaware US Attorney, including illegal foreign lobbying

He believes it was an attempt to pull the wool over Noreika’s eyes and get her to waive through the deal without spotting the huge concession by the Justice Department to the President’s son.

‘This was a way of hiding the ball both in federal court in Delaware, and in the court of public opinion, to give Hunter Biden a free pass on a decade of criminal activity not covered by the charges in this case,’ the former Missouri violent crime prosecutor said.

He described the strange construction as ‘crazy’, ‘totally unique’ and ‘not something that you would ever see in a court of law in any other circumstance, anywhere in the United States.

‘I believe that this was an effort to insulate Hunter Biden from any future legal liability for just about anything that he has ever done, without them saying that in a document which would be politically controversial and subject to judicial approval,’ he added.

‘The idea that he would be let off, effectively with two misdemeanor convictions for failure to pay taxes, is spitting in the face of law enforcement, it's spitting in the face of justice.’

Scharf applauded the Delaware district judge for spotting the scheme.

‘Judge Noreika smelled a rat. She understood that the lawyers were trying to paint her into a corner and hide the ball,’ he said. ‘Instead, she backed DoJ and Hunter's lawyers into a corner by pulling all the details out into the open and then indicating that she wasn't going to approve a deal as broad as what she had discovered.’

In the hearing, Norieka grilled Delaware AUSA Leo Wise over the strange way they had arranged their deal.

‘We looked through a bunch of diversion agreements that we have access to and we couldn't find anything that had anything similar to that,’ she said, according to a transcript.

‘Have you ever seen a diversion agreement where the agreement not to prosecute is so broad that it encompasses crimes in a different case?’

‘No,’ Wise admitted, then tried to follow up but was cut off by the judge and told to ‘sit down’.

Noreika scolded both sides for trying to get her to ‘rubber stamp’ the plea agreement without considering the blanket immunity awarded to Hunter in a separate document.

‘You seem to be asking for the inclusion of the Court in this agreement, yet you're telling me that I don't have any role in it,’ she chided. ‘You're leaving provisions of the plea agreement out and putting them into an agreement that you are not asking me to sign off on.’

The prosecutor was later put on the spot by Noreika and forced to reveal that the DoJ’s investigation was ‘ongoing’ and that Hunter could be susceptible to illegal lobbying charges.

Scharf claimed Wise only did so in an attempt to save face after the overly generous back-door clause in their deal with Hunter was exposed.

But when Hunter’s hotshot attorney Abbe Lowell heard the Justice Department lawyer hint at potential further charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), he leapt up with a face like thunder and started angrily conferring with his team.

‘Hunter's lawyers exploded,’ Scharf said. ‘They clearly believed that FARA was covered under the deal, because as written, the pretrial diversion agreement language was broad enough to cover it.

Hunter walked into the federal court in downtown Wilmington, Delaware, alongside his 'sugar brother' and lawyer Kevin Morris (left) – who was seen smoking a bong during a visit from the president's son last week

With the previous deal in tatters, the First Son pleaded not guilty, and the judge gave both sides 30 days to hash out an acceptable agreement.

On leaving the courtroom, Hunter appeared shell-shocked. What was meant to be a 20-minute, perfunctory hearing that put his criminal troubles behind him turned into a devastating setback for the President’s son that will stretch his case into fall.

Other former prosecutors were left unimpressed by Delaware’s handling of the case.

‘The fact they didn’t cover this ahead of time is really sloppy on the prosecution’s part,’ former Washington DC Assistant US Attorney Shanlon Wu told CNN on Wednesday as the hearing unfolded.

‘For Biden’s team if it’s ambiguous it’s good for them. But the fact that the judge is pointing it out now, that’s on the prosecution. They should have taken care of this a long time ago.’

‘The fact that the parties did not have that written out and completely on the same page and a full understanding on that and went into court today, is a failure by both sides here,’ said ex New York prosecutor Elie Hoenig. ‘That is inexplicable to me.

‘Hunter Biden’s potential criminal problems are not over here.’