Is the AGW believer argument shifting from denial of the recent cooling or "pause" to explaining it away?

You are looking for record temps everywhere every day of every year. No one said it was going to work that way. Averages are hard to not find some data that supports your point of view, no matter what it is. You might use the average of the last 14 years if that supports your idea, and someone else might use the average of the last 52.25 years if that supports their view better.