.htaccess rules, global redirect, and hostmonster main domain node/XX not redirecting to alias

might relate to #976214-8: Just... not working at all

Hosting is currently on hostmonster. It's a upgrade to their pro hosting package, so it has a dedicated ip and security certificate.

the main host is in a subdirectory, and in order to get that to work with hostmonster I had to put a .htaccess in the public_html main directory.

The instructions for getting the live site in a subdirectory from hostmonster were:

Problem:

    How do I make a sub directory (or sub folder) act as the public_html for your main domain? 

Solution:

    The main domain on the hosting account uses the public_html directory for all of its Web site files. Addon domains use sub directories inside the public_html directory. In order to also set up your main domain to use a subdirectory on your hosting account you will need to set up a redirect in the .htaccess file in the public_html folder so that the server knows that any request for your main domain will be redirected to a subdirectory on public_html.

    To setup the rewrite/redirect, edit the ~/public_html/.htaccess file. Insert the following code block and make modifications as noted in the (#) comments.

    # Hostmonster.com
    # .htaccess main domain to subdirectory redirect
    # Copy and paste the following code into the .htaccess file
    # in the public_html folder of your hosting account
    # make the changes to the file according to the instructions.
    # Do not change this line.
    RewriteEngine on
    # Change yourdomain.com to be your main domain.
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?yourmaindomain.com$
    # Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain.
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/subdirectory/
    # Don't change this line.
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    # Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain.
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /subdirectory/$1
    # Change yourdomain.com to be your main domain again.
    # Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain
    # followed by / then the main file for your site, index.php, index.html, etc.
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?yourmaindomain.com$
    RewriteRule ^(/)?$ subdirectory/index.php [L]


    Visitors to your Web site will not be able to tell that your main domain is using a subdirectory, they will still see the Web site address as http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html. 

public_html .htaccess

The actual file in public_html is (replaced my domain with myexampleusa):

code tags didnt work, so using pre tag

# Use PHP5 Single php.ini as default
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5s .php

# Hostmonster.com
# .htaccess main domain to subdirectory redirect
# Copy and paste the following code into the .htaccess file
# in the public_html folder of your hosting account
# make the changes to the file according to the instructions.
# Do not change this line.
RewriteEngine on
# Change yourdomain.com to be your main domain.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?myexampleusa.org$
# Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/live/
# Don't change this line.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /live/$1
# Change yourdomain.com to be your main domain again.
# Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain
# followed by / then the main file for your site, index.php, index.html, etc.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?myexampleusa.org$
RewriteRule ^(/)?$ live/index.php [L]

public_html/live/.htaccess

But have more changes to .htaccess files than just that, as I also want to use https for all traffic.
In the live directory the .htaccess file is

code tags didnt work, so using pre tag

# Use PHP5 Single php.ini as default
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5s .php

#
# Apache/PHP/Drupal settings:
#

# Protect files and directories from prying eyes.

  Order allow,deny


# Don't show directory listings for URLs which map to a directory.
Options -Indexes

# Follow symbolic links in this directory.
# For security reasons, Option followsymlinks cannot be overridden.
#Options +FollowSymLinks
Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

# Make Drupal handle any 404 errors.
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

# Force simple error message for requests for non-existent favicon.ico.

  # There is no end quote below, for compatibility with Apache 1.3.
  ErrorDocument 404 "The requested file favicon.ico was not found."


# Set the default handler.
DirectoryIndex index.php

# Override PHP settings. More in sites/default/settings.php
# but the following cannot be changed at runtime.

# PHP 4, Apache 1.

  php_value magic_quotes_gpc                0
  php_value register_globals                0
  php_value session.auto_start              0
  php_value mbstring.http_input             pass
  php_value mbstring.http_output            pass
  php_value mbstring.encoding_translation   0


# PHP 4, Apache 2.

  php_value magic_quotes_gpc                0
  php_value register_globals                0
  php_value session.auto_start              0
  php_value mbstring.http_input             pass
  php_value mbstring.http_output            pass
  php_value mbstring.encoding_translation   0


# PHP 5, Apache 1 and 2.

  php_value magic_quotes_gpc                0
  php_value register_globals                0
  php_value session.auto_start              0
  php_value mbstring.http_input             pass
  php_value mbstring.http_output            pass
  php_value mbstring.encoding_translation   0


# Requires mod_expires to be enabled.

  # Enable expirations.
  ExpiresActive On

  # Cache all files for 2 weeks after access (A).
  ExpiresDefault A1209600

  
    # Do not allow PHP scripts to be cached unless they explicitly send cache
    # headers themselves. Otherwise all scripts would have to overwrite the
    # headers set by mod_expires if they want another caching behavior. This may
    # fail if an error occurs early in the bootstrap process, and it may cause
    # problems if a non-Drupal PHP file is installed in a subdirectory.
    ExpiresActive Off
  


# Various rewrite rules.

  RewriteEngine on

  # If your site can be accessed both with and without the 'www.' prefix, you
  # can use one of the following settings to redirect users to your preferred
  # URL, either WITH or WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix. Choose ONLY one option:
  #
  # To redirect all users to access the site WITH the 'www.' prefix,
  # (http://example.com/... will be redirected to http://www.example.com/...)
  # adapt and uncomment the following:
  # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [NC]
  # RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
  #
  # To redirect all users to access the site WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix,
  # (http://www.example.com/... will be redirected to http://example.com/...)
  # uncomment and adapt the following:
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.myexampleusa\.org$ [NC]
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://myexampleusa.org/$1 [L,R=301]
# trying to make whatever/live go to whatever -cewt
#   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^myexampleusa\.org\/live$ [NC]
#   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://myexampleusa.org/$1 [L,R=301]

# http://crackingdrupal.com/blog/greggles/drupal-and-ssl-multiple-recipes-possible-solutions-https
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R,L]

  # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory or in a
  # VirtualDocumentRoot and the rewrite rules are not working properly.
  # For example if your site is at http://example.com/drupal uncomment and
  # modify the following line:
  # RewriteBase /drupal
  #
  # If your site is running in a VirtualDocumentRoot at http://example.com/,
  # uncomment the following line:
   RewriteBase /

  # Rewrite URLs of the form 'x' to the form 'index.php?q=x'.
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]


# $Id: .htaccess,v 1.90.2.5 2010/02/02 07:25:22 dries Exp $

I also have some settings in the sites/default/settings.php that might effect things.

base url in settings.php

/**
 * Base URL (optional).
 *
 * If you are experiencing issues with different site domains,
 * uncomment the Base URL statement below (remove the leading hash sign)
 * and fill in the absolute URL to your Drupal installation.
 *
 * You might also want to force users to use a given domain.
 * See the .htaccess file for more information.
 *
 * Examples:
 *   $base_url = 'http://www.example.com';
 *   $base_url = 'http://www.example.com:8888';
 *   $base_url = 'http://www.example.com/drupal';
 *   $base_url = 'https://www.example.com:8888/drupal';
 *
 * It is not allowed to have a trailing slash; Drupal will add it
 * for you.
 */
 $base_url = 'https://myexampleusa.org';  // NO trailing slash!

I'm not sure, hostmonster support suggested it might maybe have to do with my "permalink settings in the .htaccess file"