Thunderstorms had departed our region of the East Coast leaving clear skies for Wednesday’s sunrise.

But only a handful of cars were in the lot at the Ocean City, Maryland’s, inlet for the show.

Hazel was more interested in the sea birds than the sunrise, keeping a wary eye on a noisy flock as she did her business in a ragged strip of seaweed and leaves at the edge of the sand along the municipal parking lot — largely empty this time of year.

Several hundred people turned out Saturday, Oct. 18, in Hayesville, North Carolina, for a “No Kings” rally to oppose Donald Trump’s continuing destruction of the country’s constitutional safeguards.

The peaceful gathering brought families, couples and solo sign-carries to Hayesville’s Main Street — also known as Business U.S. 64 — lining both sides of the roadway as passing traffic tooted approval.

The scene unfolded in a festive atmosphere that belies the sadness of U.S. citizens who have been largely dismayed at the Trump Administration’s actions in sending masked police thugs into U.S. streets, homes and businesses to arrest non U.S. citizens who have come into the country seeking better lives for themselves and their families.

The president, with the complicity of an inactive and indifferent Republican-majority Congress, also has sent National Guard forces into several Democrat controlled U.S. cities to harass officials and residents alike with police-like actions that his administration patterns on those of authoritarian and fascist states — several of which Trump has both applauded and courted since his election.

Under Trump’s orders, the U.S. military has begun summary executions without charges or trials of foreign citizens in international waters that the administration claims — without evidence or proof — to be narco terrorists.

The totality of Trump’s actions have remade the U.S. into something more closely resembling a banana republic than a first world, democratic society.

Saturday’s “No Kings” protests — which drew millions nationwide — was the second national outpouring of discontent since the election of Trump’s pro-fascist regime.