I finally got it to work.
I uninstalled and reinstalled TT2018.
When I booted the program it asked me to do updates and I said yes. It failed again. But it did say it failed to upload my state update.
I tried opening my bogus 2018 return and tried to get to state taxes but I got the same errors about not being able to upload my state.
But I then went to the menu and "pushed" it by going to the "Online" pulldown menu and chosing "Check for Updates"
Voila! It found and installed the state update and then my 2018 tax return opened up and I was able to export a PDF. Like magic.
So I conclude that:
1) The problem all along was the lack of a state update
2) There was (or were ) a bug (or bugs) blocking some paths for installing that update.
