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What did the mid-term elections have to do with the Watts case?

True Crime Rocket Science is about thinking a lot deeper and further than everyone else. Those visiting this page are encouraged to think further than the low-hanging fruit. This is an example.

What did the mid-term elections have to do with the Watts case?

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No, the mid-term elections aren’t relevant simply [and only] because they fell on the same as the plea deal hearing.

Shan’ann Watts, the company she promoted and the mid-term elections all have one central idea in common, and, believe it or not, most Americans feel very strong about this issue right now.  That issue is health care.

Let’s start addressing the three levels of this question at the far end, at the level of the elections and voters as a national community, and work our way back to Shan’ann and you, the reader.

1. What does it mean that Healthcare is such a big issue right now?

Health care is a huge issue, not only to Americans, but to many people around the world. Health care costs are rising. Obesity, diabetes and cancer rates are rising, and with it, health care [which ought really to be called disease care].

To appreciate the magnitude of the problem, one only has to look at how healthcare costs have increased in America over the past 20 years.

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While housing costs have gone up 57%, healthcare rates have increased by a factor of five. Over the same period, average incomes have increased only 2%. So it’s no wonder the biggest expense [the fastest growing expense] is the biggest issue right now among American voters.

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What does it mean that healthcare is such a big issue? Well, it means families with constrained incomes [like the Watts family], where unexpected medical issues and chronic disease care [for example a pregnancy, and an autoimmune disease like lupus] will almost inevitably face bankruptcy.

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2. What does Le-Vel and Thrive have to do with Healthcare, or the fact that it’s such a big deal to the average American?

Does Le-Vel have anything to with healthcare, healthcare costs, or the struggle for some families – like the Watts family – living paycheck to paycheck to pay for their healthcare?

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What does Le-Vel and Thrive have to do with healthcare? How about everything?

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Le-Vel markets itself as a health and wellness company, a panacea to America’s wellness dilemma. Put a patch on your arm and your healthcare and money problems are solved.

Thrive is the missing piece in the health and wealth puzzle. Stick on a patch and your life changes – instantly! Not only do you feel better [instantly] you can also make money helping millions of others to feel better too, and make so much money while you’re at it, you can have the luxury car of your dreams, you can even elevate your lifestyle from whatever it is to a PREMIUM lifestyle.

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If you’re not convinced by dry analysis, try Le-Vel’s own promotion spiel for size, and see if you pick up the twin solution for a health and income fix in their promo video about a revolutionary new, innovative, magical formula of powders, shakes and patches.

The part at the end, in black and white, is easy to miss.

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Zooming in the fineprint acknowledges that actually, Le-Vel products aren’t intended to replace healthcare, and becoming a promoter comes with no financial guarantees, in fact you “could also earn no income at all”. So…don’t give up your day job or your current healthcare provider?

So does Thrive even work? As a wellness product and a source of household income?

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One online review site cites “limited earning potential” as one of the downsides of Le-Vel. Just how limited are we talking about? According to the review, promoters can expect a paycheck of $30-$50 per month, which will require hard work, 3-5 hours daily to achieve. Imagine working 3 hours daily for a month and coming out with $30? How many waiters would want a gig like that, even if it came with a nice healthy salad bonus at the end of the month?

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3. What does Healthcare have to do with Shan’ann Watts, or why she was murdered?

Does Shan’ann’s health have to do with anything here? When I searched for MLM under the #ChrisWatts hashtag on twitter, I found just two posts. A paltry pool of just 29 voted on my poll about the impact MLM [Le-Vel/Thrive] had on the murders.

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It’s unclear whether Gerard Courcy is correct that Watts’ defense team intended to blame the murders on Thrive, but it would make a damned lot of sense if that was their strategy, wouldn’t it? They could lay both the financial burden at Le-Vel’s door, as well as the not entirely health affirming side-effects of their product, especially if used to excess.

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The short version is that unlike most Le-Vel promoters, Shan’ann had serious health challenges, and so did her youngest daughter Ceecee. Those health challenges and associates expenses don’t resonate with us because they’re not ours to deal with, or ours to pay. Adding a pregnancy to the equation, meant the medical expenses were about to be leveraged even higher.

Shan’ann Watts was murdered eight hours [arguably five] before a doctor’s appointment. Did that appointment matter to her murderer, do you think? Who do you think would be paying for it if Shan’ann was making $50 a month, or if she was doing really well, perhaps $250 a month?

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Now let’s get back to the original question:

What did the mid-term elections have to do with the Watts case?

Healthcare. In summary then, healthcare matters in the Watts case more than most have acknowledged thus far. A criminal trial would have exposed the minutiae of the healthcare debacle the Watts family found themselves in, and also the driving forces behind them. It would have presented millions of Americans, including the over three million who watched the video above, a swath of compromised individuals in effect, with a cautionary parable regarding one particular multi-level marketing company. A criminal trial could have saved tens of thousands of damaged and dysfunctional marriages and maladapative belief systems.

Because Chris Watts signed a plea agreement, not of this will come to light through the evidentiary process of expert witnesses, and the lazer focus of a high-profile trial covered by the media.

By his taking it all on himself, all the blame, Le-Vel has dodged a bullet.

9 Comments

  1. Cheryl

    This information delivered the full impact of the Le-Vel (LV) scam, which is making an already dire situation worse ( I.e, little or no access to health care and stagnant wages), by offering an expensive film-flam panacea to gullible, desperate consumers. There is really no difference between LV and the medicine men who patronized towns in the Old West, offering fraudulent elixirs that were purported to cure any number of ailments. The exception is that now the corporate medicine men can safely operate in the unregulated “cloud,” where they are protected from the burning torches and pitchforks of defrauded consumers and promoters.

    Agreed. Had a trial gone forward, LV’s operations would have certainly received some well deserved scrutiny along with the plight of an entire generation—the Milineals. Moreover, it is Shan’ann’s and Chris’s generation that is bearing the brunt of an economy that hasn’t recovered from the 2008 financial debacle (another scam), which has resulted in widespread unemployment or under-employment—despite boasts of a robust economy by the Obama and Trump administrations. Although Chris had a good job with Anadarko, I think he would have made more money 30 to 40 years ago, because he likely would have been a member of a union, which have all but disappeared in this country along with the benefits, such as affordable healthcare, they were able to negotiate via a collective bargaining process.

    Since Chris worked in private industry, I wonder if he received health care benefits and, if so, how much did they cost for a family of four or five? I still receive healthcare benefits through my former employer, a local government entity, and just received the latest rates. Per the benefits election form, for a family the cheapest benefit is $1,553 per month and the most expensive is $3,875 per month. Mind you these are government-negotiated rates and employees pay about 20 percent of the monthly premium, which means their out-of-pocket costs are $310 to $1,280 per month. Assuming he had health care, I doubt Chris’s benefits were this good and probably took a larger chunk out of his paycheck. Ouch. Given their mortgage and other costs, I wonder if he could even afford this benefit? It would be interesting to know, especially since a third child was on the way.

  2. Pauline

    Socialism rears it’s ugly head again – “keep your doctor keep your plan”, that and other lies perpetrated on the country by a narcissistic radical lefty who wished to be King

    • Cheryl

      Shades of Info wars…

  3. Pauline

    Had Chris Watts annihilated his family anywhere else in Colorado other than the rural community of Frederick, with a solidly conservative district attorney, liberal Boulder, Denver, etc. – he would have been out on bail pending trial, and allowed to continue his charade of justifiable homicide. Besides, the evidence they have pointed overwhelming in Watt’s disfavor – his own attorneys had to convince him it was a lost cause. They say he was angry, crying, didn’t want to take the plea. I doubt really he has anything more to say about it, at least nothing that will be believed according to Rourke. I’ve never seen such an accomplished, steadfast, and committed D.A. as Rourke and he’s a diamond in the rough blue state of Colorado. He’s the hero in this story.

    • nickvdl

      “Rourke is the hero in this story.” – someone write that down. We’ll be referring to it again later.

      • Cheryl

        No doubt…

    • Cheryl

      Look at the latest video from Scott Reisch on YouTube: “Chris Watts was “Punked.” Reisch is basically asserting that Chris may have been railroaded into a guilty plea for all of the murders. If this is the case, I don’t think this has anything to do with Red versus Blue. It has, or should have, everything to do with the Rule of Law, due process, the presumption of innocence, a man’s right to a fair trial.

      • nickvdl

        Yes, I’ve seen it. Interesting. You think the plea deal held on the same day as the mid-terms has nothing to do with power or politics?

  4. Cheryl

    Yep. This really stinks all the way around.

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