Winter is here. The culture wars have arrived (maybe they never really left). On Friday, Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department released a memo calling religious freedom a “fundamental right of paramount importance” and explaining, “except in the narrowest circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with federal law.”

+ Those who wondered what impact this new directive would have didn’t have to wait long for the first clue. The Dept of Health and Human Services announced new rules that will let employers drop birth control coverage for religious or moral reasons.

+ Vox: The Trump administration’s new rule, explained.

+ The birth control change is explicit. But there are many other ways that the administration is working to dismantle Obamacare, reduce its effectiveness, and make sure the death spiral fantasy becomes a reality. From WaPo: As ACA enrollment nears, administration keeps cutting federal support of the law.

+ In other political news, FEMA has removed statistics about drinking water access and electricity in Puerto Rico from its website (because so many in Trump’s remaining base are visiting the FEMA site out of concern for Puerto Ricans…), CBS News found the one person in America who thinks Trump should tweet more (Ivana), and at a meeting with military leaders, Trump told the media, “Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.” When asked what he meant, he answered, “you’ll find out.” (Have a good weekend, everybody!)