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via Jordan the Stallion/TikTok (used with permission) and State Farm Insurance (used with permission)

Jordan Howlett (aka Jordan the Stallion) in his new role as Chief Gordon.

Jordan Howlett, 27, is known by his 26 million-plus followers on TikTok and Instagram as Jordan the Stallion (a play on singer Megan Thee Stallion). He’s attracted a massive following for his fast food recipes, life hacks, smooth voice, deep research, kind heart, and iconic “come here” camera zoom. Not bad for a guy who shoots most of his work staring into his bathroom mirror.

Now that he’s reached the pinnacle of TikTok popularity, he’s branching out as an actor. Specifically, he's taken a role as Commissioner Gordon in State Farm Insurance's new Batman-inspired commercial. Upworthy talked to Howlett about his new role and how he creates his incredibly popular videos.

The new State Farm commercials feature actor Jason Bateman as “Bateman,” the last person you want at a crime scene when you could have had the real thing, Batman, show up. In the spot's opening, Bateman meets Commissioner Gordon, played by Howlett, who closely resembles Jeffery Wright, who played the role in 2022’s The Batman.

“As I began to fill out, I started to resemble Jeffrey Wright, and I think it was just a perfect pairing. I love the work that Jeffrey does,” he told Upworthy. He also channeled Wright’s gritty performance for the State Farm spot. “My mind immediately went to Jeffrey Wright's version of Commissioner Gordon, where he talked with a grungy whisper.”

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Even though TikTok videos made him famous, Howlett couldn’t avoid catching the acting bug after this role. “I have been fully immersed and infected with the acting bug,” he told Upworthy. “I'm the embodiment of a fan and a student of acting and film and TV, and I have such tremendous respect for that art. And as much as I love having these opportunities, they’re due to the work I've done in the bathroom. I'm happy that those created these opportunities, and I don’t take them lightly.”

Howlett felt the “aura” surrounding his co-star Jason Bateman and tried to define that type of rare charisma. “I think it stems from people feeling as though they're represented by that person on screen,” he said. “If you watch people that you really admire, it’s like they speak to you in a certain way, right? Their art embodies something that really speaks to me. It's almost surreal because it's like you feel you know them on a molecular level.”

@jordan_the_stallion8

Dedication is important for big roles #StateFarmPartner @Jake from State Farm

In his videos, Howlett just tries to be himself. “It really is me,” he shared. “I don't have the bandwidth to try to put a mask on in any way. It really just is authentically myself. And I'm just happy that people can relate to that.” He also works quickly so that his videos feel natural. He records most of them in one take, but spontaneity has drawbacks. “The one downside is, after you posted, you think, like, ‘Oh, would have been funny if I said this.’ But, sorry, it’s too late because I was just doing it one time,” he said. That authenticity comes from a life where he has battled homelessness and depression and started a new life after being a Division 1 college baseball player.

Because of his ability to overcome his struggles, Jordan is seen as a role model or big-brother figure by some of his Gen Z followers. It’s a big responsibility that he takes seriously. ”I feel like there's a responsibility to people who see me in that way, to make sure that I do the best I possibly can to make them proud,” he told Upworthy. “I don't tell people to do something or use something that I wouldn't do or use myself, and make sure that I stay true to who I am and continue to do that out of respect for them. I'm honored.”

The fight to save the Affordable Care Act has migrated to a new battleground: Facebook.

Since early September, a viral Facebook status has been making the rounds, claiming that the Trump administration is attempting to sabotage the law by making enrolling in a health plan on Healthcare.gov confusing and difficult.


The wording varies from post to post, but the message is largely the same. It urges users to "copy and paste" and to employ a linguistic trick meant to boost the post's prominence on the social network:

CONGRATULATIONS! The White House is trying to stop you from enrolling in Obamacare. Fortunately, your friends (like me) are posting this and using the word "CONGRATULATIONS" so that Facebook's algorithm shows this to more people. Enrollment for 2018 Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare) starts November 1 and ends December 15. Snopes verified that the enrollment period was shortened and GOP has cut by 90% the funding to advertise these deadlines. Administration is also taking the website down for "maintenance" for 12 hrs at a time on weekends for most of the enrollment period when working people might most likely need to use it - doing what they can to sabotage ACA. (Please leave a comment saying, "Congratulations!" to influence FB's algorithm to increase the visibility of this posting.) THEN, PLEASE COPY AND PASTE ON YOUR OWN TIMELINE.

"[It] sucks when I'm told I don't deserve affordable health care and when it's implied it's my fault I have a pacemaker or need pain meds," says Jackie Todd, a filmmaker who posted the status to her page in September. She believes her chronic heart condition would make her uninsurable, should the Affordable Care Act be repealed.

The "congratulations!" Facebook status offers users the twin satisfactions of doing one's civic duty and hacking Facebook's mysterious "algorithm." And the accusations of sabotage jibe with recent reports that claim the Trump administration is rolling back its support for the law.

At the same time, it's hard not to be skeptical of a random post that appears in your feed.

Should you believe it? Should you share it?

That depends on a few things. And I looked into those things.

Is the information about the ACA in the post accurate? Broadly, yes. Let's break it down:

"Enrollment for 2018 Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare) starts November 1 and ends December 15."

True, according to Healthcare.gov. That's six weeks shorter than the 2016 open enrollment period, which ran from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31.

"Snopes verified that the enrollment period was shortened and GOP has cut by 90% the funding to advertise these deadlines."

Also true, with a caveat. On Aug. 31, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it would allocate $10 million for its ACA promotional budget, down from $100 million in 2016. The agency claimed that despite doubling advertising funding from 2015 to 2016, "first-time enrollment [declined] by 42 percent," justifying the deep cuts.  

As for the caveat? Snopes didverify the information — though the claim that the "GOP" is responsible is not exactly right, as the adjustment was made by the Trump administration, not any particular political party.

"Administration is also taking the website down for 'maintenance' for 12 hrs at a time on weekends for most of the enrollment period when working people might most likely need to use it."

Again, true. In late September, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would be taking Healthcare.gov offline on five Sundays during the open enrollment period, from 12 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Is the "congratulations" tactic an effective way to "hack" Facebook's mysterious algorithm?

Unfortunately, probably not. At least no more so than simply posting the information to Facebook without the "congratulations" attached.

The claim that including "congratulations" in a status boosts a post's ranking on Facebook comes from from a 2014 Wired article, which reported that Mark Zuckerberg proposed the idea himself, after noticing that a post about a colleague's birthday appeared higher on his own feed than a post about the birth of his own niece.

That's not the case today. A Facebook spokesperson said that including highlighted words like "congratulations" (which trigger delightful special effects when clicked) do nothing to improve a post's ranking on the news feed. He noted that posts that feature the word do "tend to get more engagement from people on the platform," which does increase their reach.

So should you post it yourself?

"Anything and everything is helpful in spreading the word," says Lori Lodes, co-founder of Get America Covered. A former director of communications at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Lodes was responsible for outreach efforts during Healthcare.gov's second and third open enrollment periods. Get America Covered was founded to fill the gaps left by the administration's cutbacks, in part by putting together resources to help individuals encourage those in their social networks to enroll.

In the meantime, Lodes supports sounding the alarm on Facebook.

"The most important thing people can do right now is to get the word out — whether that is talking to friends, sharing on social media or hanging up signs in their neighborhoods," she says.

The next few months will help determine whether the Affordable Care Act thrives or merely survives.

Can anyone really help replace the well-funded, coordinated effort of a large federal bureaucracy?

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

That part remains to be seen. But it's up to you, regardless.

Congratulations!

Please copy and share?

Sen. Bill Cassidy has failed the "Jimmy Kimmel Test."

Spectacularly so.

In a blistering monologue delivered Tuesday night, late-night host Kimmel accused the Louisiana Republican of coming on his show and lying "right to my face" about health care.


At issue: the latest Republican attempt to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act, with a bill co-sponsored by Cassidy. This bill comes just a few months after Cassidy appeared on Kimmel's show in the wake of Kimmel's newborn son's open-heart surgery and his heart-wrenching monologue about the importance of health insurance.

"A few months ago, after my son had open-heart surgery, which was something I spoke about on the air, a politician, a senator named Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, was on my show, and he wasn't very honest. It seemed like he was being honest. He got a lot of credit and attention for coming off like a rare, reasonable voice in the Republican Party when it came to health care for coming up with something he called — and I didn't name it this, he named it this — the 'Jimmy Kimmel Test,' which was, in a nutshell, no family should be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can't afford it."

Kimmel argued that instead of passing Cassidy's Jimmy Kimmel Test, the new bill cruelly rips away many of the protections Cassidy promised to uphold.

"Now, I don’t know what happened to Bill Cassidy. But when he was on this publicity tour, he listed his demands for a health care bill very clearly. These were his words. He said he wants coverage for all, no discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, lower premiums for middle-class families, and no lifetime caps. And guess what? The new bill does none of those things.

Coverage for all? No. In fact, it will kick about 30 million Americans off insurance. Pre-existing conditions? Nope. If the bill passes, individual states can let insurance companies charge you more if you have a pre-existing condition. You’ll find that little loophole later in the document after it says they can’t. They can, and they will.

But will it lower premiums? Well, in fact, for lots of people, the bill will result in higher premiums. And as far as no lifetime caps go, the states can decide on that, too, which means there will be lifetime caps in many states. So not only did Bill Cassidy fail the Jimmy Kimmel Test, he failed the Bill Cassidy Test. He failed his own test. And you don’t see that happen very much."



The proposed law, as drawn up by Cassidy and three other GOP senators, would indeed drastically weaken many of the Affordable Care Act's consumer guarantees, much as Kimmel described it.

According to an NPR analysis of the bill, states could indeed waive the Affordable Care Act's essential benefits requirement and allow insurers to charge customers with pre-existing conditions more or reject them outright.

Additionally, states could permit insurers to reinstitute lifetime coverage caps, limiting the amount they pay out over a customer's lifetime.

Cassidy responded to Kimmel shortly after the segment aired, disputing the host's characterization of the bill and encouraging his colleagues to vote for it.  

Senators and bill co-sponsors Dean Heller (left) and Cassidy. Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images.

"We have a September 30th deadline on our promise. Let’s finish the job," he said in a statement provided to Vox. "We must because there is a mother and father whose child will have insurance because of Graham Cassidy Heller Johnson. There is someone whose pre-existing condition will be addressed because of GCHJ."

It is difficult to imagine that will be enough for Kimmel, who concluded by pleading with his audience at home to "call [their] congressperson."

"You have to do this. You can't just click 'like' on this video," he said.

The future of health care in America could hang in the balance.

A year after being diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, Kelly Angard is waging a fight for not only her life, but for millions of others.

Over the past 12 months, the 52-year-old self-employed photographer and artist has undergone chemotherapy and surgery and is once again going through another round of chemo. With insurance, her treatment costs her around $16 per month; without insurance, her out of pocket costs rise to more than $5,200 per month — unaffordable on virtually anyone's budget. Without treatment, it's probable that her cancer would reach a terminal stage within months.

Kelly Angard and her daughter. Photo courtesy of Kelly Angard.


Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Angard would have found it nearly impossible to find health insurance.

Thanks to the 2010 law, also known as "Obamacare," Angard couldn't be denied coverage on the basis of having a preexisting condition. At the time of her diagnosis, Angard was still on her recently-separated husband's insurance, and while she was able to stay on his plan for a while, she'd eventually found herself in need of her own policy. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, she couldn't be turned away due to her cancer diagnosis.

November's election brought a renewed call from the law's opponents for its repeal. That's when it hit home for Angard that she may soon lose what coverage she has.

"It hit me like a freight train," she says, noting that she had been rediagnosed just weeks before the election.

Photo courtesy of Kelly Angard.

She teamed up with two other women to create Faces of the ACA, a website dedicated to boosting the stories of individuals whose lives have been saved because of the law.

The political rhetoric surrounding the law has overshadowed the reality of what its repeal would mean to the millions of people who benefit from it. Angard, along with Anjali Fernandes and Mary Afifi, launched Faces of the ACA to help take the discussion surrounding the law beyond the rhetoric.

"So many people do not understand — they hear the talking points, but they don't really understand what that exactly means — what that looks like for a person [like me]," she says.

"I've had the idea in my head that people just want to be heard. Obviously, even more so now, in this environment after this election, people want to be heard. So, in a nonpartisan way, the idea of having a place where people can have a voice came into my head. I was overwhelmed with doing it on my own, but through conversations ... with a few other people, I said, 'I really believe that we need to get our faces in front of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and the others.' And the lady I was talking with said, 'Yes, we do.' She said, 'Faces of the ACA.'"

Faces of the ACA has a simple goal: to push back on the politicized approach to health care.

And that's exactly why Angard wanted to avoid using the term "Obamacare" across the site.

"I don't want it to be a political issue at all," she says. "And so I made no political issue on the site because everybody has health needs. Calling the law by its respectful name was very important to me."

Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images.

It turns out that when you ask people about what the Affordable Care Act actually does, they like it.

According to a December survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 85% of the public support the provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plans until age 26, 83% support eliminating out of pocket costs for preventative services, and 69% favor the provision that bans insurance companies from denying coverage on the basis of preexisting conditions.

That same poll found that just 26% of the public want the law completely repealed. 30% of Americans actually think the law needs to do more.

Repealing the law would have some potentially disastrous effects.

The Urban Institute, a public policy think tank, found that repealing the Affordable Care Act would cause nearly 30 million Americans to lose their insurance. Of those newly uninsured, up to 36,000 people may die as the result of no longer having access to health care.

Misconceptions about the law, however, continue to run rampant, and that's why stories from people whose survival depends on it are so very important.

Most of us have benefited from the law in one way or another. Still, many don't seem to understand what the legislation actually does. In October, then-candidate Donald Trump appeared to confuse the set of standards and regulations (what the law consists of) with some sort of insurance plan all on its own (which is not what the Affordable Care Act is).

Another common, if somewhat misunderstood, argument against the legislation is that it's driving the cost of insurance up. The reality is that this problem existed long before the law was passed, and interestingly enough, it was opposition from some of the more conservative members of Congress that eliminated the possibility of a "public option" — something that would have helped rein in those yearly increases. While the average premium increase for plans bought through the Healthcare.gov marketplace increased by 22%, few were actually affected by this, as the available subsidies increased as well.

As of this writing, Faces of the ACA has roughly 100 stories from a wide range of Americans.

From Luanne T., who was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at age 13, to Mark D., who shared his story of being denied coverage pre-ACA due to a clerical error, it's worth taking your time to visit the site and see just how many people depend on the ACA and what it would mean to lose it.

This really shouldn't be a partisan issue. The U.S. is one of few industrialized countries not to guarantee health care for its citizens, and while even many of the law's proponents would argue that a single-payer system would be an ultimately better solution, the Affordable Care Act is a big step in the right direction — and Faces of the ACA shows why.

Supporters of the Affordable Care Act stand outside the Supreme Court in 2015. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.