Thank you Bill. I was able to upload and activate a plugin “Disable Comments” which is compatible with WP 4.6.1 and not only was I able to turn off all comments, but the 80,000 or so that had accumulated over the past 2 years has disappeared! Yeah!
I’m still having problems with the http error. I deactivated Easy Image Gallery and installed ImageMagick and am able to upload jpg, pdf and other graphic files, but not small .docx files as I had in the past. Very confusing. I think this is a compatibility problem with the newest upgrade 4.6.1. Unfortunately I can’t communicate directly with folks at WordPress. I’m thankful for you!