You’re probably infected with some form of malware. Clean that up and then install an ad blocker. In general, don’t use Internet Explorer unless you have to; I’m less and less fond of Firefox as time goes on, but it’s still superior in terms of keeping your system safe.
I’d also look at using Opera or Safari instead, not only are they both safer than IE, they’re generally not as often targeted by malware.
Yes. Freerepublic has no popups.
I use mostly Opera now. Firefox is useless because the addons are so numerous as to make any site I go to visible for only seconds at a time. Sea Monkey which I have long used is truncating itself out of existence. I use Spybot and Malwarebytes. My ad blocker is apparently blocked. Opera, so far, is smooth and untroubled. How do advertisers profit from effectively shutting down internet access?