Definitely not on copyright grounds, since almost all state flags (except Georgia, Mississippi, and soon to be Utah) are old enough to have entered the public domain.

when there’s not a recognised disability involved but just health issue/s (which could be “disabling”).

From the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in regards to the ADA:

Under the ADA , you have a disability if you have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity.

Essentially, if you are disabled, you have a disability, whether recognized or not. If you are not disabled, then you do not have a disability.

Under this definition, something like asthma, which is fairly common, can be a disability when it comes to strenuous activities, but isn’t something that is immediately obvious to someone just passing on the street.

As far as it being ablist to assume that someone not showing signs of disability isn’t disabled? No, that’s silly. Not believing them if they tell you they can’t run a mile because they have asthma? Still no, that’s skepticism.

Ablism would be something like planning a company outing, and choosing the location up a tall, steep hill when other options were available, specifically because you don’t like the fact that your coworker has asthma.

It’s not.

“Hey, look at that girl/car/tree/Chihuahua” isn’t a left nod. It’s eye contact, then you look at the thing.

“Come here/go there, let’s talk” isn’t a right nod. It’s a weird neck movement where your head is kind of sideways and you’re nodding in the direction of the place you want them to go. You usually use “Hey, look at that tree” first before you try to get them to go to the tree to talk.

Can confirm up and down are correct enough, though. Up is for people you know, down is for people you don’t.

This is exactly why I usually say it means “Something’s wrong” instead of “I want something” because the cat is perfectly capable of occupying un-pillowed laps, it just chooses not to.

I suppose in that respect, it does mean “I yearn!” but I’ve taken it to mean “Something’s wrong!”, with the nuance being that he’ll want his food bowl filled even if he’s not hungry or me on the couch even if he doesn’t immediately want a lap.

My cat knows exactly what it wants when it yells at me. I just had to learn how to speak cat.

The meowing is just to get my attention. Once walk over to him, he’ll walk over to the place he wants me to go. At that point I have to figure out what he wants me to do there, but it’s usually food dish/water dish/couch for lap sitting.

The part between the corners of the image. It’s white and has grey and green blobs on it. You can’t miss it.

For union dues, I’ll sometimes bring up strikes. People know that when unions strike, they aren’t working, and when they aren’t working, they aren’t getting paid. What they don’t realize is that most unions pay the employees during strikes, and that money has to come from somewhere.

“Sunwise”, and for the exact same reason.

Clocks go clockwise because their predecessors did. What were their predecessors?

Sundials.

How does the shadow go around a sundial? Well, sunwise, of course.

Counterclockwise, as said in another comment, was “widdershins”, from a Middle Low German phrase meaning “against the way”.