Just when I thought I'd got the hang of the 
git checkout -b newbranch - commit/commit/commit - 
git checkout master - 
git merge newbranch - 
git rebase -i master - 
git push workflow in 
git, something blew up, and I can't see any reason for it.  
Here's the general workflow, which has worked for me in the past:
# make sure I'm up to date on master:
$ 
git checkout master
$ 
git pull # k, no conflicts
# start my new feature
$ 
git checkout -b FEATURE9 # master @ 2f93e34
Switched to a new branch 'FEATURE9'
... work, commit, work, commit, work, commit...
$ 
git commit -a
$ 
git checkout master
$ 
git merge FEATURE9
$ 
git rebase -i master # squash some of the FEATURE9 ugliness
Ok so far; now what I expect to see -- and normally do see -- is this:
$ 
git status
# On branch master
# Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit.
#
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
But instead, I only see "nothing to commit (working directory clean)", no "Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit.", and 
git pull shows this weirdness:
$ 
git pull
From .                                        # unexpected
 * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD # unexpected
Already up-to-date.                           # expected
And 
git branch -a -v shows this:
$ 
git branch -a -v
  FEATURE9                 3eaf059 started feature 9
* master                   3eaf059 started feature 9
  remotes/origin/HEAD      -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/master    2f93e34 some boring previous commit # should=3eaf059
git branch clearly shows that I'm currently on * master, and 
git log clearly shows that master (local) is at 3eaf059, while remotes/origin/HEAD - remotes/origin/master is stuck back at the fork.
Ideally I'd like to know the semantics of how I might have gotten into this, but I would settle for a way to get my working copy tracking the remote master again & get the two back in sync without losing history. Thanks!
(Note: I re-cloned the repo in a new directory and manually re-applied the changes, and everything worked fine, but I don't want that to be the standard workaround.)
Addendum: The title says "can't push", but there's no error message. I just get the "already up to date" response even though 
git branch -a -v shows that local master is ahead of /remotes/origin/master. Here's the output from 
git pull and 
git remote -v, respectively:
$ 
git pull
From .
 * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD
Already up-to-date.
$ 
git remote -v
origin  
[email protected]:proj.
git (fetch)
origin  
[email protected]:proj.
git (push)
Addendum 2: It looks as if my local master is configured to push to the remote, but not to pull from it. After doing for remote in '
git branch -r | grep -v master '; do 
git checkout --track $remote ; done, here's what I have. It seems I just need to get master pulling from remotes/origin/master again, no?
$ 
git remote show origin
* remote origin
  Fetch URL: 
[email protected]:proj.
git
  Push  URL: 
[email protected]:proj.
git
  HEAD branch: master
  Remote branches:
    experiment_f tracked
    master    tracked
  Local branches configured for '
git pull':
    experiment_f merges with remote experiment_f
  Local refs configured for '
git push':
    experiment_f pushes to experiment_f (up to date)
    master    pushes to master    (local out of date)