(This blog item was originally posted at the Capital Research Center blog on May 30, 2012.)
What do self-described “communist” Van Jones, his good friend Arianna Huffington, radical philanthropist George Soros, the Threshold Foundation, and the Tides Foundation all have in common?
They all are connected in some way to convicted “Speedway Bomber” Brett C. Kimberlin, a man described by Michelle Malkin as “a radical, violent, lying, dangerous felon.”
Kimberlin, as blogger Liberty Chick previously reported,
spent nearly 17 years in prison after being convicted of launching a week-long bombing spree that terrorized the residents of Speedway, Indiana in the late 1970’s. One of the blasts horribly maimed a man so badly that it directly led to that man’s suicide a few years later, which was proven when the widow of that bombing victim successfully sued and won a civil judgment against Kimberlin for $1.6 million.Kimberlin is a political trailblazer of sorts. He is a tactical innovator whose tried and true methods would have impressed the father of modern community organizing, Saul Alinsky. The late conservative Internet entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart recognized Kimberlin’s unique talents last fall, tweeting that the convicted terrorist and his confederates needed “exposure.”
Kimberlin is focusing on bullying conservatives into silence, which is the same thing that so much of progressivedom is concentrating on nowadays. But unlike Van Jones and the various Marxist agitators who have inflicted damage on conservative talk radio and innocuous groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) through innuendo and smears, Kimberlin gets in his enemies’ faces. While in prison he taught himself the law. Nowadays he sues conservatives who write about him and obtains restraining orders against them – the First Amendment be damned.
Amazingly, a leading Kimberlin detractor, conservative blogger Aaron Walker, was jailed by a Maryland judge yesterday after criticizing Kimberlin.
JTMP and another nonprofit Kimberlin founded, Velvet Revolution, receive money from left-wing funders. Of course it’s their privilege to do what they want with their money even if it means funding nonprofits operated by “a radical, violent, lying, dangerous felon.” Similarly, since 1984 it has been Capital Research Center’s mission to report on and analyze what charities do with their money.
The Threshold Foundation has been in the news in recent days because the San Francisco-based philanthropy gave $20,000 in 2008 to the Justice Through Music Project, a seven year old Bethesda, Maryland-based 501c3 nonprofit entity. JTMP was founded by Mr. Kimberlin a few short years after his release from prison. (See its latest IRS Form 990 [tax return] here.) Threshold has also given $60,000 to the related nonprofit, Velvet Revolution, since 2007. (For more information on Threshold, see Bonner Cohen’s July 2006 Foundation Watch article.)
Drummond Pike, founder of the heavily Soros-funded Tides Foundation, describes Threshold as “a treasure and a long time partner/ally of Tides.”
How did JTMP and Velvet Revolution come to the attention of Threshold?
One of the original activist-donors involved in the informal group that would become the Threshold Foundation was Kimberlin’s apparently wealthy aunt Harriet Crosby. An alumni magazine also describes Crosby as “active” in Velvet Revolution.
By the way, how do we know Crosby is related to Kimberlin? Because a 2009 article from the Gazette identifies him as her nephew. (The story dealt with Crosby’s attempt to help two wild foxes and noted that Kimberlin used his legal skills in an attempt to assist the foxes after his aunt ran afoul of natural resources laws. This was, at least arguably, one of the very few times Kimberlin has used the legal skills he acquired in prison for good.)
The Threshold Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit corporation, is run by the Tides Foundation. This is not a metaphorical statement.
Quite apart from any grant activity, since 2003 Threshold has paid at least $1,813,162 to the Tides Foundation for “management and operations services,” according to Threshold’s 990 forms. (Threshold’s 990s for 2003 through 2010 are available at Guidestar.org with the exception of 2006 which was missing.)
On its IRS Form 990 (a 990 is similar to a tax return and nonprofit organizations are generally required to file them) for Tax Year 2010 Threshold describes itself as “a progressive foundation and a community of individuals united through wealth, who mobilize money, people and power to create a more just, joyful and sustainable world.” On the tax form Threshold lists gross receipts of $2,451,209 in Tax Year 2010. It also indicates the organization was formed in 1982 and considers New York to be its “state of legal domicile.” The books and records of Threshold are in the possession of the Tides Foundation, also in San Francisco.
It should be noted that Tides, in turn, receives major funding from various donors including George Soros. Soros’s Open Society Institute has given at least $25,776,623 to Tides and its affiliated Tides Center since 1999. Another Soros philanthropy, the Foundation to Promote Open Society, has given at least $9,844,312 to the Tides network since 2009.
Threshold is a member of the United Nations-loving, liberal internationalist Peace and Security Funders Group, according to Professor John J. Tierney.
Several left-wing philanthropic heavyweights are also members of PSFG including: Arca Foundation (formerly run by Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Maryland); Carnegie Corporation of New York; Ford Foundation; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (the “Genius” award people); Stewart Mott Charitable Trust; George Soros’s Open Society Institute; Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Tides Foundation; (Ted) Turner Foundation; and Working Assets (which is run by radical philanthropist Michael Kieschnick and his lieutenant Becky Bond who co-founded the Secretary of State Project).
Just like the Tides Foundation, the Threshold Foundation hands out money to radical, subversive, and revolutionary groups.
The foundation has given $678,308 since 2003 to Code Pink (a.k.a. Environmentalism Through Inspiration and Non Violent Action) which is not altogether surprising given that Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans is a member of Threshold’s board.
The Threshold Foundation gave $11,000 to the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in 2005. The Center was co-founded by former Obama green jobs czar and 9/11 truther Van Jones.
The Threshold Foundation has also given to the extreme-left Institute for Policy Studies ($18,820 since 2004), Democracy Now ($36,268 since 2003), Ruckus Society ($5,266 in 2003), Stop Prisoner Rape ($43,500 since 2005), and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy Foundation ($75,800 since 2003).
The Threshold Foundation has given the Tides Foundation and affiliated Tides Center $386,296 since 2003. This figure appears to be separate from any monies paid to Tides for management and operations services.
Threshold’s board of directors is a hodgepodge of radicals of all ages.
Michele Grennon is president of the Threshold Foundation. An interior decorator, Grennon is a longtime Democratic contributor. According to the Federal Election Commission she has given $64,625 to Democratic and left-leaning causes since 2003. (Feel free to use the FEC database yourself.)
In 2008 then-CEO of the Tides Foundation Drummond Pike lavished praise on Grennon, describing her as “an extraordinary new president” who has “brought a grounded, thoughtful, and steady hand to the helm of an impossibly complicated beast.”
Anne Golden, a management consultant who works with nonprofits, is Threshold’s treasurer.
Terrence Meck, another Threshold board member, is a real estate investor and executive director of the Palette Fund. Meck is also on the boards of the Movement Advancement Project, New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, God’s Love We Deliver, Queer Youth Fund, and the Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute.
Matthew Palevsky, son of Evans and the late computer billionaire Max Palevsky, is also on the Threshold board. The godson of Arianna Huffington, the young man was editor of citizen journalism at the Huffington Post website until 2010.
Palevsky’s aforementioned mother Jodie Evans is also a Threshold board member. An anti-American crusader who is warmly regarded by Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, Evans is a co-founder of Code Pink. Code Pink supports dictatorships hostile to the United States across the globe and has funneled money to America’s Islamofascist enemies.
Sam Utne is on the Threshold board. It’s not clear at writing if Utne is related to Eric Utne, founder of Utne Reader, but it’s not exactly a common surname. Utne Reader is a kind of leftist answer to Reader’s Digest.
Other members of the Threshold Foundation board are activist Laura Wasserman, gay activist Craig Harwood, and 1960s radical Allan Badiner who describes himself as a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) insider.
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