Yes, I know of the universal translator. They rarely seem to need to use it though...

They use it all the time. The only time it even comes up in the plot is when the translator has trouble translating.

So you are telling me that the universal translator is ALWAYS active and they just don't mention it most times? It's built into both ship comms and individual communicators and in most cases it 100% suppresses the original spoken language audio and makes the alien's lips visual sync to spoken English?

Yes, except during the times it has trouble translating. Also, you should probably say to yourself, "It's just a show, I should really just relax." :-D

as Mel Brooks put it in 1983's To be or Not to Be

"Ladies and Gentlemen: In the interest of clarity and sanity, the rest of this movie will not be in Polish."

They don't mention it because it would get annoying if they mentioned it every episode. The translators 100% suppress the original spoken language so that the viewing experience is not horrible. The actors/actresses lips visually sync to spoken English because if they didn't, it would look ridiculous. Imagine how annoying it would be if almost every character (even the main characters, since Picard likely spoke French) did not appear to be saying what they were saying.

They never mention it because it normal and common place

Darmak and Jalad at Tanagar. Temba, his arms wide.

been to california or texas lately pendejo ?

This meme rapes Star Trek. Its like saying: "Hey, when anakin is the bad guy in star wars, why haven't they just shot him?" /// Why do you think they have a translator???"