diff --git a/ansible_mitogen/process.py b/ansible_mitogen/process.py
index e690058b..c8402a6d 100644
--- a/ansible_mitogen/process.py
+++ b/ansible_mitogen/process.py
@@ -674,11 +674,22 @@ class MuxProcess(object):
         self._setup_master()
         self._setup_services()
 
-        # mock checking if sshpass exists; mitogen doesn't need it to ssh
-        # TODO: confirm this
-        # TODO TODO: this isn't working
-        ssh.SSHPASS_AVAILABLE = True
-        import epdb; epdb.set_trace()
+        # mock checking if sshpass exists
+        # NOTE: extreme hack:
+        #       https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.10.0/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/ssh.py#L577
+        #       is forcing 'sshpass' to exist but Mitogen doesn't need it
+        #       open to less hacky things here
+        #       tried from ansible.plugins.connection import ssh; ssh.SSHPASS_AVAILABLE = True
+        #       but we're in a socket call so that won't work, maybe there's another place we can set it?
+        # TODO: here's a place where it only applies to ansible 2.10+
+        # we could check distutils.version.LooseVersion(ansible.__version__).version for 2.10.0+
+        # won't work on python < 3.3
+        from unittest.mock import MagicMock
+        if not ssh.Connection(
+                play_context=MagicMock(), new_stdin=MagicMock(), shell='bash')._sshpass_available():
+            # create a dummy sshpass "program", somehow
+            print('MOCK SOMEHOW NOT HACKILY')
+
 
         try:
             # Let the parent know our listening socket is ready.