Tag: Paul Jay

Jan 30 2011

Paul Jay: Two Scenarios for the People and the Army in Egypt: Interview with Mohammed Ezzeldin

Paul Jay of The Real News Network talks with Egyptian Activist Mohammed Ezzeldin, a graduate of Cairo University (B.A. in political science). Ezzeldin is studying for his master’s degree in history at Georgetown University.  This video was released by The Real News on 29 January 2011.  The text below the video is an edited partial transcript of the interview.



Real News Network – January 29, 2011

The Egyptian Army And The Uprising

Mohammed Ezzeldin: The Egyptian people trust the army over the police,

but Mubarak is still commander-in-chief

Mohammed Ezzeldin: We have two main scenarios now regarding the relation between the people and the army.  We have the Tunisian scenario.  There’s a division in the ruling elites, there is division in the regime, so the army will be neutral: the tanks and soldiers and officers in the streets, they are just maintaining the security of the people, they are securing the people from any brutality practiced by the police.  This is the first scenario, the Tunisian scenario.  The second scenario, which happened in Iran in [1978-]1979: when the Shah started to give orders to the army to involve themselves, to suppress demonstration against the Shah, and asked them to shoot the demonstrators, they did so.  But after a while there was a huge division and severe division inside the army.  And this moment, actually, it’s a turning point in any dictatorship when the army supporting the dictator or supporting the one ruling party suffers from a division.  We don’t know, we don’t have clear information about what’s going on in Egypt, how the events in coming days are going to unfold.  The chief of staff of the Egyptian army was here on a visit to the United States just one day before the demonstrations broke out.  And it seems, for many commentators and many people who analyze the situation, that there’s a sort of behind-the-scene negotiations between the Pentagon and the Egyptian army or the Egyptian ministry of defense.  One of the newspapers yesterday just published a piece of news about this, about these bilateral talks, because these people are very crucial and very cautious about what’s going to happen, because many people in Egypt, or the majority of the Egyptian people, understand that the army, having millions of dollars every year as an aid –.

Paul Jay: Yeah, we think it’s $1.3 billion of American aid, although do we know if that’s all goes to the military?  Or does some of that go to the police?

Mohammed Ezzeldin: Most of them go to the military, I guess.  But, you know, the budget of the military and the budget of the police are not discussed, and they are not publicly published or even discussed in the Parliament.  So I don’t have clear information about it.  But what I’m sure about: that these bilateral talks actually are going to ensure one thing that the United States and the Pentagon and the White House, of course, are interested in, which is the security of Israel.  The indecisive situations and positions taken by Hillary Clinton and President Obama in the last two days actually shows one thing, one clear thing, to be frank: that the United States is not interested in any democracy or grassroots democracy or program of democracy in Egypt.  Their main concern is the security of Israel — and other things, but this is their main concern, okay?

Paul Jay: The Egyptian army, given that it gets $1.3 billion a year — that’s a lot of money and it buys you a lot of generals — the Pentagon must have a lot of influence inside the Egyptian army.

Mohammed Ezzeldin: I don’t know, but maybe.  We can expect a lot of things.  But what actually was clear today from Mubarak’s speech: he’s completely consolidated and supported by the army.

Paul Jay: He didn’t look like someone afraid that he might have to get on a plane.

Mohammed Ezzeldin: Yeah, he was completely confident and completely unaffected and disconnected from reality.  What happened actually made many people feel in the streets that the army . . . might play a role in suppressing Egypt’s road to democratization.

Paul Jay: And if they do that, it’s hard to believe they would do that without some kind of green light from the Pentagon here in Washington.

Mohammed Ezzeldin: I guess so.  I believe so.

Nov 24 2010

The Big Bubble Is Bursting: Is There Life After Capitalism?

Revisited from October 2009 (once more in case DD closes down) here in a rather prophetic talk 2 years ago Paul Jay of the Real News talked in November 2008 at The Von Krahl Academy in Estonia about foreign policies, wars, terrorism, the crises of capitalism, media, economies, about the shit hitting the fan, and about solutions development.

Jay’s talk is about 40 minutes. Watch the video. It’s worth your time. It’s one of the best videos I think ever produced by Jay and The Real News, if not the best.



Real News Network – October 4, 2009

The crisis will deepen, we need real news

Paul Jay of The Real News speaks

at the Von Krahl Academy, Estonia in November 2008

“I had to decide. Do I believe my own rhetoric? Or not?”

“If I’m not doing the thing I feel is most significant,

then I feel empty inside.”

— Paul Jay

Nov 01 2010

Which Section of the Elites Will Govern After Tuesday?

Real News’ CEO Paul Jay’s commentary on the top six ways Obama and the Democratic Party allowed a resurgence of the Republicans:



Real News Network – November 01, 2010

How Dems Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP

..transcript follows..

Aug 22 2010

The Big Bubble Is Bursting: Is There Life After Capitalism?

Here Paul Jay of the Real News talks in November 2008 at The Krahl Academy about US foreign policies, blowback, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the concurrent crises of capitalism, of media, of economies, of terrorism, of fascism, of corporatism, of corruption in US political parties, about the shit hitting the fan, and about one part of the solution for it all.

I originally posted this at Antemedius as one part of the solution, shortly after the video was released, in October 2009.

Jay’s talk is about 40 minutes. Watch the video. It’s worth your time, and beats TV all to hell. I guarantee it.

“If I’m not doing the thing I feel is most significant, then I feel empty inside.”

–Paul Jay



Real News Network – October 4, 2009

The crisis will deepen, we need real news

Paul Jay of The Real News speaks at the Von Krahl Academy, Estonia in November 2008

Mar 16 2010

David Swanson on state single payer movements, Kucinich, and ERISA

Check this out, it’s well worth it.  If you don’t want to watch, there’s a transcript at http://therealnews.com/t2/inde…

Very informative, he talks about PA single payer for a while, among other things.

Check out single payer for PA at http://healthcare4allpa.org

Dec 20 2009

Real News Network – Climate Debate

Part One (posted December 17):


More at The Real News

Part Two (posted December 18):


More at The Real News

Part Three (posted December 20):


More at The Real News

Daniel J. Weiss is making a very disingenuous argument in his “we should only go for what’s possible” approach.  He keeps falling back on the “perfect is the enemy of the good” line, as though anyone seriously expects or asks for perfection.  He also ignores that when Medicare, Social Security, the Civil Rights Act, and the Clean Air Act were passed, the political environment was very different – Republicans could be rolled far more easily than they can be today.  What’s more, by starting with the accommodation first and working down from there, substantive policies are not being passed.  Weiss doesn’t even acknowledge the obvious tactical reality at work: obviously demanding everything from the start is not going to get us everything, but it can lead us to some actual compromise that everyone can live with.  Daphne Wysham, who is advocating for stronger policies and takes the opposite argument, could have done a bit more to press the counterarguments I just mentioned, but overall it was a spirited and informative discussion.  It’s certainly nothing like what you’d see on any of the cable news programs.

Oct 04 2009

The Big Bubble Is Bursting: Is There Life After Capitalism?

Here Paul Jay of the Real News talks in November 2008 at The Krahl Academy about foreign policies, wars, the crises of capitalism, media, economies, and about the shit hitting the fan.

Jay’s talk is about 40 minutes. Watch the video. It’s worth your time.



Real News Network – October 4, 2009

The crisis will deepen, we need real news

Paul Jay of The Real News speaks at the Von Krahl Academy, Estonia in November 2008

“If I’m not doing the thing I feel is most significant, then I feel empty inside.”

–Paul Jay

Nov 08 2008

David Swanson and Paul Jay on Rahm Emanuel

If you’d like to discuss this and other topics with me, feel free to tune in tomorrow at noon EST at Blog Talk Radio:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/p…

The call-in number is (347) 884-9121.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Nov 08 2008

In Their Boots

Brave New Foundation: In Their Boots Webcast 18

Topic: Employment After Service Beyond Basic Training Chapter 1

Originally aired on October 29th, 2008

Beyond Basic Training

After being medically retired from the Army, Iraq veteran Kevin Randolph and his family are without options. They move to a transitional housing facility, and Kevin must enter one of the worst job markets in recent history to support his wife and their new baby.