Germany introduces women-only trains

Billionaires like Samuel Irving Newhouse (estimated net worth:  $9.5 billion) and Donald Edward Newhouse (estimated net worth: $10.5 billion) live in a bubble. They wouldn't know what real life was if it jumped up and bit them on the arse (which we suspect to be their fondest dream).  Like the Koch brothers, the Newhouse boys like to throw their money around to remake the world the way they want it.  That's what all that money does to you.  It makes you a crazy megalomaniac with god delusions.  

The Newark Star-Ledger is owned by the Newhouse boys.  In fact, Donald is the 2nd richest resident of New Jersey and the 56th richest person in the United States.  That makes him real nuts -- off the charts god delusional.  Recently he had his newspaper editorialize about opening up women's toilets to men, with penises, who fantasize about being women.  Only in bubble-world does this make sense.

In the real world, responsible people are trying to make the world safer for women and girls.  So while the Newhouse boys and their organ, the Star-Ledger, advocate making New Jersey women and girls less safe, in Germany they are advancing international efforts to make women and girls more safe.  Here is a story that appeared yesterday in a European newspaper, the Daily Mirror:

German train operator introduces women-only carriages amid fears over 'migrant sex attacks'

A German train operator has announced it is introducing women and children-only train carriages amid fears over sex attacks in the country.

The Regiobahn line between Leipzig and Chemnitz will introduce the carriages to increase security for women.

The carriages will be next to the train conductor in a bid to make women feel more safe.  

A spokesman for the railway said: “The local proximity to the customer service representative is chosen deliberately.”

Germany is still reeling from a string of sex attacks in Cologne on New Year's Eve, allegedly carried out by dozens of migrants.

In total more than 800 complaints were made to police and the incidents have sparked criticism over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to refuse to limit the number of refugees allowed into the country.

But the railway has said the measure is not a direct reaction to the Cologne incidents but is about increasing security generally.

The idea of gender segregated carriages was suggested by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last year as a measure to reduce sexual harassment on public transport.

He said: “Some women have raised with me that a solution to the rise in assault and harassment on public transport could be to introduce women-only carriages. 

“I would consult with women and open it up to hear their views on whether women-only carriages would be welcome – and if piloting this at times and on modes of transport where harassment is reported most frequently would be of interest.”

The measure is also currently in place in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Egypt.

Billionaire Newhouse boys' obsession with girls' toilets

The Newark Star-Ledger is owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse (estimated net worth:  $9.5 billion) and Donald Edward Newhouse (estimated net worth: $10.5 billion).  Donald is the 2nd richest resident of New Jersey and the 56th richest person in the United States. He resides in New York City. 

These billionaires are well known for their foul treatment of working men and women.  They have broken blue-collar unions, cheapened the journalism, and degraded the working conditions of those who labor to put out the Star-Ledger each and every day.  Only the top brass at the Star-Ledger have grown fatter as they put out "the world according to Newhouse" in its narcissistic editorials.

So this is who we are up against.  And it is not enough that they have grown fatter while New Jersey's economy has become more fragile. Not enough that they have done well in the midst of high unemployment and worse underemployment, foreclosure, homelessness, debt, corrupt crony capitalism, the highest property taxes in America, increasing poverty, and record child hunger.  Now these people want to tell us how to live.  And don't think for one minute that they will share the lot that they dictate to us.  They are rich.  Very rich.  And they don't have to live in the manner they set for us.

In an Easter Sunday editorial the Newhouse boys handed down their version of what the future should be for us.  A mother goes shopping with her young 9 year-old daughter to a suburban mall.  The little girl has the usual fizzy soft drinks and so, nature calls.  Mom takes her child into the sanctuary that was once the "women's room" and they find that it is a sanctuary no longer.  And here is what that young mother and daughter will find if the billionaires Samuel and Donald Newhouse have their way:

Safety should come first.  In cities around the world -- in Cairo, Delhi, Tokyo, and Mexico City -- responsible government leaders have responded to gender-based harassment by providing women with the option of using female-only public transportation subway cars and buses during rush hours.  Here in New Jersey, they want to take away the option of women-only toilets.

Just because she needs to use a public restroom, a 9 year-old girl shouldn't have to come face to face with the genitals of a convicted adult male sex offender.  Our children shouldn't have to suffer for the deluded fashion statements of two billionaire brothers and the newspaper they own.