In the flashback to Christmas 1995, Pussy misses the sitdown between Jackie Aprile and Junior which he himself brokered because of his comare's mother having a stroke. This was meant to illustrate to Tony and Silvio that he must have flipped then (though we know he wasn't flipped until 1998).

But shouldn't missing a high-level sitdown, for any reason, merit a death sentence? It shows that you have put something above La Cosa Nostra.

What do you call a Pussy fart? A queef.

I hated that.

Pussy misses a very important sitdown - one he brokered no less - and the only punishment he gets from Jackie was a "where have you been?" followed by an extremely weak excuse (his comare's mother was in the hospital and then he got laid? Really?) after which Jackie just jokes about it and let him off the hook.

In real life mobsters get whacked for as much as not answering the boss' phonecall. The only thing that would have saved Pussy's life in this situation would have been if it was something of grave importance, like if his kid was on his deathbed or something. Otherwise, they would find Pussy the next day with a window in his head.

Me too.

I don't think Puss was a rat at that time, but it shows he was an unreliable motherfucker, and when you think about it, this is a very tense sitdown, basically brokering peace before a war between Junior and Jackie could break out. Not only does it show massive disrespect to the newly crowned Boss, and to one of the family's strongest and longest serving Capos, as well as to his own Captain, it also shows he puts something as trivial as his comare and her mother about this thing of ours.

Sentimentality - Jackie, Tony and Silvio loving Puss like a brother - saved him there. If it were anyone else....

Jackie does say to him, "You better have a good excuse for why you're still alive"

One of the mistakes in Sopranos is how they let characters get away with too much. I mean look at Richie Aprile. If he was that disrespectful and disobedient to his boss in real life Tony would have ordered him killed much earlier than he did. Hell when he ran over Beansie he was going against Tony's direct and very explicit order not to touch him, so in essence he was saying "fuck you I don't respect your authority". That wouldn't keep him alive for very long afterwards.

I think one of the points of the Sopranos was showing how the Mafia is in decline - and really it's because of yuppie bosses like Tony, who don't understand this thing of ours. We see clear examples of old school guys like Phil, Richie, Feech, and even a great boss like Carmine. All of these guys don't respect Tony, and more to the point, they don't last very long. But they're the kind of guys that the Mafia depended on in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. A guy like Richie would've been your average Joe Capo in the 1970s. Phil Leotardo would've been hanging with Robert DiB in the 80s; Carmine is an example of an old-school boss. It wasn't so much that the Sopranos as a show got it wrong, it was to show in my opinion how much the younger generation had swayed from the Code. I mean, Tony was considering harboring an openly gay Capo. As Phil said, "In your father's day, that never would've happened."

And, as, Paulie said sarcastically: "Salvatore Lucania must be looking down on all of us With great pride."

I think Pussy flipped in 95’ then went on the Fed’s payroll in 98’. This situation is similar to the Willie Boy debacle.