I have a few serious questions. Seems confusing what American Eagle (the brand) is doing (not Envoy the airline) or is it Envoy the airline?
1. America Eagle (the brand) is the umbrella *subsidiary of American Airlines Group (AAG) correct?
Incorrect. The name American Eagle is now the branding for all of American's regional feed. Perhaps some history would make better sense of it all. Back in the 90's AA began buying up all of its regional feed and combining them into a single airline - American Eagle Airlines. Until 2001ish, AE represented all of AA's regional feed. After the TWA merger, AA acquired all of TWA's regional feed which included code shares with TSA and Chautaqua. These codeshare flights were branded "American Connection" to separate them from American Eagle Airlines and to prevent confusion. Sometime last year (if memory serves) AA announced it would be changing American Eagle Airlines' name to something new and rebranding what was called "American Connection" to the name "American Eagle". I believe this coincided with the changes in scope clause following the bankruptcy and the diversification of AA's regional feed. In January of this year, American Eagle Airlines announced it would officially be changing its name to Envoy.
This is not yet official, and it will not be until sometime in March. Therefore, for at least a year now, we have had American Eagle Airlines and American Eagle (AA's regional feed brand) existing at the same time. This is what has caused such confusion.
2. Is this American Eagle *separate from Envoy? Or are they one in the same?
See above. Right now, you have have to distinguish between American Eagle Airlines and American Eagle (AA's regional feed brand).
3. Can America Eagle (not Envoy) hire pilots and staff pilots for Republic Airways, Mesa, ExpressJet, flying their routes under American Eagle (the brand)??? (Again not Envoy)
No. American Eagle (AA's regional feed brand) is not an airline. It is merely a brand name just like Delta Connection, United Express, US Airways Express, etc. AA has entered into codeshare agreements with Skywest, Expressjet, and Republic to do flying under its regional feed brand.
4. So why is American Airline Group through its subsidiary "American Eagle (the brand which 5 other carriers fly under)" hiring/*guaranteeing interviews or marketing Pipeline Programs and other collegiate agreements (ex: Spartan, OU, and 20-50 other universities) as American Eagle which is a brand in which 5 other carriers fly under; but not as Envoy Airline which is where these perspective pilots will actually work for, and be managed by.
Again, see above. This seems misleading, because AE's new name is supposed to be Envoy, right? Well, as previously stated, the name change is not official yet and what this article is referring to is American Eagle Airlines, not American Eagle (AA's regional feed brand).
5. Why is American Eagle (the brand/subsidiary) confusing the hell out of people? Is Envoy not going away eventually per American Eagle CEO's threat? Or is it the American Eagle the brand which he is threatening will go away in a few years (not Envoy).
The rebranding is confusing and will be until the name change is official. Is Envoy going away? We're not really sure yet. In the initial contract negotiations, the union was told that American Eagle Airlines needed to accept concessions or would be "comaired". The company later elaborated by saying that they would slowly wind down Eagle over a 3-4 year period as they handed flying off to other regional carriers and then shut down the company once it reached a certain size. As you can read for yourself in this forum, Pedro Fabregas' letter following the union voting down the AIP was somewhat cryptic. It says that the airline will not be shutdown, but also seemed to imply that it would only continue as a ground handling operation. There has already been some debate on this, but I believe that Fabregas's letter was intentionally cryptic because he doesn't know exactly what AA is going to do now.
6. Did management ever say they will shutdown or scale back Envoy Airlines?
Yes.
7. Should the link above, and quote below not say Envoy? Should hiring and marketing not say Envoy since American Eagle is just the "brand" now which 5 other carriers fly under. Envoy being the actual carrier.
No, as previously stated, the name change is not official yet.
8. Can Unions file a lawsuit against this?
Lawsuit over the branding confusion? I guess I'm not sure what you mean here.