title: git: "not something we can merge" across all repos
body: <p>I'm getting this error on all my local repositories when I try to pull my upstream master branch.</p>
  
  <pre><code>⬡ &gt;&gt; git pull origin master
  From github.com:xyz/outland
   * branch            master     -&gt; FETCH_HEAD
  merge: welcome - not something we can merge
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It will fetch, but not merge the remote branch and I get this even after I check out a fresh copy of each repository. The repos are completely independent of each other so it must be a global issue to my computer, however I can't figure out what I did to get in this state.</p>
  
  <p>git version 1.8.3.4 (Apple Git-47) on a 15" macbook retina</p>