Second, for the lack of warming since 1998, isn't that already explained by El Niño cycles? It peaked in '98, and was one of the strongest ever recorded. It makes later data look less impressive by comparison. I haven't followed any of the links though so I don't know if this was taken into account in the "no warming since '98" stories.

Yes, 1998 was an unusually warm year due to the El Nino, and that would have made the next few years look less warm by comparison, but it's not enough to explain the 15 years since then with a fairly small rate of warming.

The pause in warming is actually a widely acknowledged issue and many papers have been published about it, see for instance http://fabiusmaximus.com/2014/01/17/climate-change-global-warming-62141/