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After looking over several tcpdump results, this morning, it seems that the problem is DNS.

The home (NTT America, Inc.) for the old FreeRepublic.com IP address: 209.157.64.200 , still remembers that IP address refers to both:

freerepublic.com
www.freerepublic.com

And some things on your computer, that mentions those two names in relation to the old IP address: 209.157.64.200

Like a hosts file, some cache file, a bookmark file, a firewall rule, a routing entry.

This morning, I found a clue in one of the tcpdump results, that led me to dig further into my own computer’s hosts file . . . and hidden therein (down among several entries made over the years), I have had an INCORRECT pair of entries:

209.157.64.200 freerepublic.com
209.157.64.200 www.freerepublic.com

Those two entries did not occur to me; I failed to remember that I had added those some years ago. I failed earlier, to search for those possibilities. Major Duh!

And, my apologies for not getting to that discovery, earlier.

BTW, Freeper “rarestia” is correct in regard to TLS - the FreeRepublic.com connection uses TLSv1.2

Microsoft Internet Explorer - how to enable that:
https://help.hotschedules.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020184072-Enabling-TLS-1-2-on-web-browsers