A few thoughts on the topic thread -
The Trump Jr. e-mails ensure that the "Russia connection" meme isn't going away, and probably now takes on the whiff of a true scandal. The best possible spin at this point is that Trump Jr, Manafort and Kushner were just vetting an offer of possible political dirt that was quickly dismissed as bullsh1t. Remember, at about the same time (July 2016), Russia was peddling crapola, through another British intermediary, about a "dossier" on Trump including his antics in a Russian hotel room. The Dems tried to push that one for a few days, but it quickly became clear that it was disinformation.
Well, the Russians appear to have been at it again, pushing disinformation to the Trump campaign and counting on that campaign's naivity and inexperience. Their apparent intermediary, Goldman, spelled out the source of the information and "Russia's support" for Trump, bait that Trump Jr. eager responded to with the words "I love it". The stuff was crap, but the Russians achieved what they wanted - an e-mail string apparently showing the Trump campaign's eagerness to get dirt even from "Russian government" sources.
It's a huge leap from "we did not collude" to "we were eager to collude but there was nothing there". Now some, like the NYPost, are calling Trump Jr. an idiot. But there's nothing idiotic with vetting offers of political dirt. But this dirt was tainted from the start with a Russian label. What is idiotic is to have a story out there that doesn't wash. Trump Jr. is being transparent now, but why didn't the President get those e-mails out there months ago to bolster its point that it didn't collude, even though Russian baddies were trying to get to the campaign with false promises of "support"?
Trump seems convinced of the notion that any acknowledgement of Russian dirty tricks will somehow cast aspersions on the legitimacy of his election. To the contrary, what may destroy his Presidency is months of denials undermined by e-mails indicating his own son was eager to get opposition research even if labeled plainly as being of Russian origin. Trump should have gotten in front of this months ago by releasing the e-mails as evidence of Russian disinformation attempts that were vetted and REJECTED. Instead, the current news will, to most observers, be just seen as contradicting the Administration's own denials. And that could, in the end, prove fatal.